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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/juniorhighschoolOOkoos 



THE 

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



BY 

LEONARD V. KOOS 

PROFESSOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

HENRY SUZZALLO 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 



M 



NEW YORK 

HARCOURT, BRACE .AND HOWE 

1920 



i 



I 



\< Q 



COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 
HARCOURT. BRACE AND HOWE. INC. 



THE QLMNN & BODEN COMPANY 
RAHWAY N J 



©CI.A570349 



JOrt 



W2Q 



INTRODUCTION 

It has been the traditional assumption that public 
schools are merely educative in function. To be sure 
this is their originating purpose and will remain their 
dominant one. But the scientific study of the careers 
of pupils indicates that the school system inevitably 
performs certain other functions which have large con- 
sequences for the students inasmuch as they retard, 
close, lengthen or determine the particular quality of 
the school education received. 

One of these additional school functions is the pro- 
tecting or conserving function which schools are 
always tending to exercise in special manner and vary- 
ing degree. There is not much question that the schools 
of fifty years ago, with their rigid adherence to a 
narrow course of study and their continued favoring 
of those ^ gifted in this restricted curriculum, were in- 
clined to encourage the training of the few and to 
discourage the education of the many. In the present 
school system a far more democratic impetus is at 
work. More attention is being given to varied types 
of mind. Those who suffer physical and mental 
handicaps are given the merciful attention of medical 
inspectors, school nurses, school clinics and special 
classes with a regimen of their own. For the most 

iii 



iv INTRODUCTION 

part, these modern adjustments are the outcome of an 
aspiration to equalize educational opportunities. Their 
result is a longer period of schooling than would have 
been the privilege of most unfortunate children several 
decades ago. 

There is another school function which is the out- 
come of a quite different aspiration, namely the desire 
of the teaching profession to be economical and efficient 
in the service it renders the individual and society. 
In the older and more traditional schools it expressed 
itself in the selection and rejection of students, the 
standards of such continuous discrimination being on 
the whole narrow rather than broad. Recent statistical 
studies of school careers have indicated such an un- 
anticipated rate of retardation and consequent elim- 
ination that attention has been focussed critically on 
the organization and method of the existing school 
system. In turn thoughtful educationists have pro- 
ceeded to constructive experiments devised to hold 
children in school. Individual instruction, multiple 
courses and elective studies, departmental teaching, 
promotion by subjects, vocational and pre vocational 
classes, educational and vocational guidance and other 
modern innovations have been in considerable degree 
developed out of the attempt to lengthen school careers 
through better adjustments to individual differences. 
In so far as this motive has established itself as a 
working reform in the schools, it has transmuted the 
older and more or less subconscious function of selec- 



INTRODUCTION v 

tion and rejection of students into the contemporaneous 
and quite conscious policy of distributing school at- 
tendants more effectively within the complex ramifica- 
tions of the modern school system. Thus whatever 
ability and interest the child or youth has is given a 
more congenial activity through which to express him- 
self and the student's career is prolonged. This dis- 
tributive function of the school operates within the 
school as educational guidance and across the gap be- 
tween school and working life as vocational guidance 
and placement. 

The professional recognition of these conserving 
and distributing functions of the public school system 
and the perception of their tremendous influence on 
the quality and quantity of the educational service ren- 
dered by the school to youth have been responsible 
for much of the current educational reconstruction. 
For this reason, it is well to have in mind the multiple 
functions of the public school system before beginning 
the study of a particular group of educational read- 
justments such as are involved in the Junior High 
School Movement. They are mentioned here so as to 
give a background to the specific interpretations of 
this particular educational reorganization. 

It is not at all accidental that the teaching profession 
should at the present time be deeply engrossed with 
the Junior High School Problem. There is adequate" 
reason for such interest. Attention usually focuses 
on the most troublesome group of problems. It is 



vi INTRODUCTION 

precisely because the now-obvious maladjustments seem 
to be more numerous and important in and about the 
close of the elementary school years and the first years 
of high school, that the effort at reconstruction has 
been most pronounced at this point in the school 
system. In consequence the analysis of the Junior 
High School Movement offers one of the most sig- 
nificant views of current educational thought and 
practice. 

It is quite important for the profession to know in 
an accurate way the exact status of this movement. 
Many claims have been made for the Junior High 
School. We must know which are justified. Many 
new devices of administration have been proposed and 
tried. We must learn which are expedient or success- 
, ful. The unsolved problems must be indicated that 
additional experiments may be conducted in an econom- 
ical way and the whole development of the Junior 
High School hastened in the direction of sure results. 
The author of the volume here presented serves our 
needs with a treatment which is scientific in spirit and 
method. He offers us the strict fact of experience. 
He summarizes the success, failure and uncertainty of 
our experiments to date. His study is a valuable con- 
tribution to the next stage in progress, because its 
method is not the optimistic expression of doctrine and 
intent, but the unprejudiced analysis of practice and 

result - Henry Suzzallo. 

Seattle, Wash., 
December, 1919 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
THE MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 

PAGE 

i. The factors of the movement for reorganization . i 

a. The unfavorable result of comparison with Eu- 
ropean systems I 

b. The facts of elimination urged reorganization . 2 

c. Recognition of variation among children re- 
quires reorganization . . . . . . . 2 

d. The unsuitability of the conventional organiza- 
tion to the approach to maturity of children in 
upper grades added to the impulse .... 3 

e. Factors extrinsic to educational needs ... 3 

2. The consciousness of the need for reorganization is 

NOT NEW 4 

a. The Committee of Ten recommended the six- 
year high school as alternative .... 4 

b. Its Conferences recommended the earlier intro- 
duction of high school subjects . . •:....- 5 

c. The Committee on College Entrance Require 
ments urged the establishment of a six-year high 
school and recommended the introduction of 
high school subjects into seventh and eighth 
grades •.'•''• 6 

d. The Committee on the Eeconomy of Time em- 
phasized the recommendations of earlier com- 
mittees . 7 

e. It recommended also the horizontal division of 

the six-year high-school period .... 8 

3. The movement is widespread 9 

4. It takes on a great variety of forms .... 10 

5. The imperativeness of attempting to clarify 

thought concerning the junior high school . . II 

CHAPTER II 

THE PECULIAR FUNCTIONS OF THE JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOL 

1. The aims of education 13 

2. The relation of the junior high school to these 

aims 14 

vii 



•X 



fc 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3. "Advantages" of or "arguments" for the junior 

high school are classifiable as peculiar functions 15 

4. The method of canvass for the peculiar functions . 16 

5. Difficulties in classifying the functions ... 17 

6. Retention of pupils 20 

a. Illustrative statements 20 

b. Present extensive elimination . . . . 20 

c. External and internal organization as causes of 
elimination . . 21 

d. The relative absence of factual proof of reten- 
tion through reorganization 22 

e. The expectation of improved retention ... 26 

7. Economizing time 27 

a. Illustrative statements 27 

b. Earlier introduction of high-school subjects . 28 

c. Scientific elimination in elementary-school stud- 
ies . . m . . 31 

d. Giving less time to reviews ..... 32 

e. Scientific economy in secondary-school sub- 
jects . . .-.,.■ > 33 

f. Economy through recognizing individual differ- 
ences . 33 

Recognizing individual differences 34 

a. Illustrative statements ....... 34 

b. Variation in age, physique, mentality ... 35 

c. The " surface of normal distribution " . . .37 

d. Increased variability in upper grades ... 37 

e. Variation in interests 38 

/. The factors of variation . . . . . .41 

g. Meaning of recognition of differences in terms 

of ultimate aims . . 44 

h. Methods of recognition available for the tradi- 
tional organization 45 

i. Methods of recognition in reorganization . . 46 

9. Exploration for guidance 47 

a. Illustrative statements 47 

b. Exploration is preliminary to recognizing indi- 
vidual differences . . . . . . .48 

c. Possibilities in the conventional organization . 49 

d. Increased facilities are necessary . . . . 49 

e. Possibility of providing increased facilities with 
concentration of pupils 49 

'10. Providing the beginnings of vocational education . 50 

a. Illustrative statements 50 

b. Beginning of vocational education through ex- 
ploration . . . 51 

c. The disagreement as to whether specialization 
should begin in junior high school .... 5 2 

d. Specialization in junior high schools was not 
recommended for Cleveland . . >j „ . 53 



, a 



CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

e. Separate prevocational schools are not justified 

where there are junior high schools ... 54 
U, /. The decision should depend upon the findings of 

Jf a survey 55 

11. Recognizing the nature of the child at adolescence 55 

a. Illustrative statements 55 

b. Increments of stature, weight, and vital capacity 56 

c. The increased power of the heart . . ... 57 

d. The appearance of the signs of puberty . . 58 

e. The difficulties in measuring the psychic changes 

of adolescence 58 

f. The dawn of social consciousness . ,. . . 61 

g. Where the changes take place 62 

>^v^- h. The advisability of gradual but far-reaching 

changes in school organization 62 

12. Providing the conditions for better teaching . . 63 

a. Illustrative statements 64 

b. Unfavorable conditions of the one-teacher 
regimen 65 

c. The present tendency toward departmentaliza- 
tion 65 

d. How the junior high school encourages improve- 
ment 65 

13. Securing better scholarship 67 

a. Illustrative statements 67 

b. It depends to some extent upon better teaching . 68 

c. It follows the introduction of supervised study . 68 

d. The improvement through changed attitudes of 
pupils 68 

e. The absence of scientific proof of improvement 68 
/. Improvement is to be anticipated in individual 

but not in average scholarship 71 

14. Improving the disciplinary situation and socializ- 

ing opportunities . . . ;. 71 

a. Illustrative statements 71 

b. The two phases of the improvement 

(1) Reorganization brings disciplinary relief . 72 

(2) Reorganization enlarges the socializing 
opportunities ....... 72 

c. The advantage in homogeneity 74 

" t<j. Other peculiar functions are not frequently men- 
tioned 76 

„Jj6. The argument of financial economy is ill-advised . 77 
"17. Relief in the housing problem is dependent on the 
local situation and is extrinsic to the educational 

— r-- functions 78 

18. "The influence of the home is sometimes not con- 

tinued 79 

19. Hastening reform in grades above and below is a 

by-product 79 



x CONTENTS 

PAGE 

20. Normalizing the sized classes is more local than 

universal 80 

21. Bringing relief to teachers is important, but ex- 

trinsic to educational functions 80 

22. The legitimate peculiar functions of the junior 

HIGH SCHOOL . . . 8l 

23. The interdependence of these functions ... 82 

24. The senses in which they are peculiar ... 82 

25. Performing the peculiar functions facilitates the 

achievement of ultimate aims 85 



CHAPTER III 
THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 

1. The test of the organization is the adaptation of 

the features to the performance of the functions 86 

2. The features more frequently provided .... 86 

3. The method of testing the adaptation of a feature . 87 

4. The inadequacy of most organizations .... 89 

5. Application of the test illustrated 89 

a. The more common practices as to grades in- 
cluded 89 

b. The seventh grade seems best adapted as the 
beginning grade 90 

c. The three-year unit favors retention and econ- 
omy of time _ . . .91 

d. The two-year unit is urged as being better 
adapted to the needs of vocational education . 92 

e. Socialization of the ninth-grade is better in the 
three-year unit 93 

/. Three-year unit will cause more fundamental re- 
organization 93 

g. The commission of the North Central Associa- 
tion on admission 94 

h. The advisability of following their recommenda- 
tion . 95 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 

1. This feature is regarded as highly important . . 97 

^ The types of programs of study 98 

a. The single-curriculum type illustrated ... 98 

b. This type fails to perform the peculiar functions 99 

c. The multiple-curriculum type illustrated . . 100 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

d. The implication of the determination to enter 
an occupation in the field represented by a cur- 
riculum 102 

e. The superiority over the preceding type in per- 
forming the peculiar functions .... 103 

f. The danger of failure to provide for explora- 
tion ' ,/. 104 

g. The constants-with-variables type illustrated . 105 
h. It remedies the defect of the preceding type . 107 
i. The objection of difficulty of administration must 

ykC^ give way before educational needs .... 107 

/. The desirability of suggestive curricula . . 108 

3. The constant subjects 109 

a. To be determined by common needs . . .110 

J/^ b. Training in the fundamental processes continued in 

c. They assist in guidance 11 1 

4. The variable subjects . . _ . . # . . . .112 

a. The activities found in junior high-scho61 pro- 
grams . 112 

b. Their distribution to courses 113 

c. Extra-curricular activities . ..' . . . . .'113 

d. The adaptability of the activities to junior high- 
school grades . . 114 

e. The need of a generous list of variables . . 115 
/. The arrangement of activities in a program of 

studies 116 

g. The variables and differentiation . . . .117 
h. The variables and training in the fundamental 

processes 117 

i. The variables and the performance of the pe- 
culiar functions 118 

5. Classification of pupils according to ability . .118 

a. It is encouraged by concentration of pupils . .118 

b. An illustrative plan 119 

c. To what courses it should be applied . . .119 

d. The advantages of classification .... 120 

6. The subjects of study 120 

a. English 121 

(1) Traditional courses 121 

(2) The report of the National Joint Com- 
mittee . . .121 

(3) The distribution of time .... 122 

(4) Additional literature as a variable . . 123- 

b. The social studies 123 

(1) The course of study 124 

(2) The work in geography . . . . . 124 

(3) The course in American history . . 125 

(4) Vocational civics 125 

(5) Community civics 126 

(6) Economics and sociology in application . 126 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

(7) Ancient history as a variable «. m .. 127 

c. Mathematics 127 

(1) The need for ability in computation and 

in quantitative thinking 127 

(2) Recent changes in junior high-school 
mathematics . ■.. ,., M . ; „ . 128 

(3) The work in arithmetic ..... 128 
'(4) Algebra and geometry in seventh and 

eighth grades 128 

(5) The mathematics in the variable offering 130 

d. General science . .....,.,. 131 

(1) The need of a knowledge of science . . 131 

(2) Instruction in science in the grades of the 
elementary school and in other subjects . 131 

(3) General science in eighth and ninth grades 132 

(4) The nature of the course which should be 
taught . • ■«■ . r.- 133 

e. The foreign languages 133 

(1) The offering in this field . . . .133 

(2) The declining faith in the foreign lan- 
guages 134 

(3) We should continue to offer them . . 134 

(4) The modern foreign languages may begin 

in the seventh grade 135 

(5) Modern foreign languages to be begun in 

the seventh grade, Latin in the eighth . 135 

/. Physical education ....... 135 

(1) Where it should find place .... 135 

(2) Hygiene should be stressed . ; . . . 135 

(3) Play activities are to be emphasized . . 136 

(4) We must differentiate for boys and girls . 137 
g. The fine arts 137 

(1) The offering in music and the graphic and 
related arts . w . r.. > . . 137 

(2) Their functions ....... 1.38 

(3) The constant in music is not to be an 
identical requirement for all ... 138 

(4) The offering in the arts other than music 139 
H. The practical arts . . . . . . 140 

(1) Some work should be given in industrial 
arts, home arts, commercial work and 
agriculture > . 140 

(2) The possible proportion of practical arts 

in the pupil's schedule . . . . I4i ] 

(3) The character of the work in industrial 
arts .141 

(4) The socializing value of the work . . 143 

(5) The opportunities for specialization . . 143 

(6) The home arts 144 

(7) Agriculture M >j , .., . 144 



CONTENTS fciii 

PAGE 

(8) Commercial work 144 

(9) The pupils' contact with adult standards 

of efficiency » 145 

7. The dependence of the program of studies upon the 

provision of other features i46 



CHAPTER V 
OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 

1. Departmentalization .148 

o. Teaching work is almost uniyersally depart- 
mentalized or semi-departmentalized . . 148 

b. The advantage of moving gradually toward com- 
plete departmentalization 149 

c. The relation of departmentalization to the per- 
formance of the peculiar functions . . .149 

2. Promotion by subject . , . . . . .151 

a. This feature is also very commonly provided » 151 

b. The measures of relationship between the grades 

of the same pupils in different subjects . . 152 

c. The bearing of promotion by subject on the per- 
mance of the peculiar functions .... 152 

3. Methods . 153 

a. The two innovations, (a) supervised study and 
(b) methods of teaching through the project 
and problem 153 

b. The administration of supervised study . . 153 

c. The purposes of supervised study . % . .154 

d. Socialization of motive through project and 
problem '. 154 

e. Their relationship to the distinctive purposes . 155 

4. The advisory system ^ . . . . . . . .156 

a. The need of advisory system 156 

b. A widely functioning plan is necessary . . . 156 

c. Two types of assignment of pupils and their 
evaluation . . . ... . . 156 

d. Curricular exploration has two phases . . . 159 

(1) The pupil makes contacts with many kinds 

of work 159 

(2) The teacher measures the success of the 
pupil in them . . . . . .160 

e. The imperativeness of direction of the advisory 
activities . . . . . . . . . 161 

/. Monition and not compulsion must characterize 
the advisory system 161 

g. The bearing of the advisory system upon the 
performance of the peculiar functions . . . 162 

h. The inadequacy of the usual system . . . 162 






xiv CONTENTS 

PAGE 

5. The staff . 163 

a. Its important role in reorganization . . . 163 

b. The teacher described in terms of features and 
functions . . . . . . . . > . . 164 

c. The sources of supply of teachers . . . .165 

d. The kind of principal needed 166 

6. The social organization 167 

a. The present extent of extra-curricular activities 167 

b. Organizing and controlling them to realize their 
educational values 167 

c. The teacher andthe social organization . . 168 

d. The social organization will assist in accomplish- 
ing the peculiar purposes 168 

7. Housing and equipment 169 

a. The advantage of separate housing . . . 169 

b. The problem of distance to the junior high 
school 169 

c. The sort of plant needed 170 



CHAPTER VI 
THE STANDARD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

1. The ineptitude of the typical junior high school 

as the standard of organization 174 

2. The inopportuneness of standardization . . . 175 

3. Tentative standardization of the organized school . 176 



TABLES 

PAGE 

I. Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions . . 18 
II. Occupational Choices of Thirteen Year Old Boys . . 41 

III. Percentages of Pubescent and Post-Pubescent Boys at 

Each Age 59 

IV. Percentage of Pubescent and Post-Pubescent Girls at 

Each Age 59 



GRAPHS 

Fig. 1. Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions . 19 
Fig. 2. Distribution by Ages of Seventh Grade Pupils . . 38 
Fig. 3. Distribution of Total Point Scores in Eighth and 

Ninth Grades . 39 

Fig. 4. Distribution of Scores for Quality of Reading in 

the Eighth Gade 39 

Fig. 5. Distribution of Scores in Composition in Eighth 

Grade 40 

Fig. 6. Distribution of Seventh Grade Pupils according to 

Number of Problems in Multiplication Solved . 40 
FiG. 7. The Relationship Between the Features of the 

Junior High School and the Performance of its 

Functions 88 



xy 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



THE MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 

THE FACTORS OF THE MOVEMENT 

Many forces, not one or a few only, are responsible 
for the movement for educational reorganization find- 
ing expression in the present widespread establishment 
of " junior high schools " or " intermediate schools." 
Perhaps first in point of time has been the appreciation 
on the part of some of our educational leaders that, 
as compared with certain European school systems, 
for the children in our schools entrance upon the period 
of secondary education is too long delayed. We have 
been told that there is a waste of time in our system. 
The unfavorable position given American schools in 
these comparisons has had no little to do with the 
current dissatisfaction with the conventional relation- 
ship between our elementary and secondary schools. 

A second factor must be the statistical studies show- 
ing the high rate of pupil mortality beginning at about 
the sixth grade and continuing unabated through the 



2 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

earlier years of the four-year high school. During 
a long period we had been taking a smug satisfaction 
in what we regarded as the equality of educational 
opportunity afforded by our system. It hurt our pride 
to learn that the facts did not square with our boasting. 
Those directing our schools could hardly do otherwise 
than cast about for the means of achieving the educa- 
tional democracy we had failed to attain. 

Upon the heels of these disconcerting data and 
doubtless in some part discovered in an effort to learn 
the causes of elimination, came facts touching the wide 
variation in capacity, interests and needs of children 
in and out of school. A consideration of these dif- 
ferences brought a consciousness of the impossibility 
of adequately recognizing them in the conventional 
school. As the problem of recognizing these varia- 
tions grows more acute in the grades commonly as- 
sociated with the junior high school, it was but natural 
that efforts at reform should focus upon them. 

Another force, perhaps even more influential than 
any of those already mentioned, may be set down here : 
the increasing appreciation of the fact that during the 
later years of the common school most children are 
undergoing changes in the nature of a rapid approach 
to adulthood, changes which make unsuited for them 
many of the features of that school. Among these 
incompatible features are the complete disciplinary 
dominance of the one-teacher regimen and the repeti- 
tion and extension of the materials and methods of 



MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 3 

the " common branches " at a time when the child 
needs to be engaged by new interests. 

Besides the forces mentioned and others which will 
occur to the reader as legitimate, we may point out 
certain forces which have had much to do with hasten- 
ing the present status of reorganization and which are 
actually extraneous to the more strictly educational 
requirements of the situation. Here may be mentioned 
the solution of a knotty local building problem which 
is made possible by instituting the junior high school 
plan. For instance, the four-year high school building 
in a system becomes overcrowded. To build new and 
larger accommodations seems to the administrative 
authorities impossible. By removing the pupils of the 
ninth grade from the high school building and housing 
them with those in the seventh and eighth grades in 
some older buildings the problem is solved. This easy 
emancipation from a housing difficulty has sometimes 
been the primary cause of a superficial reorganization; 
it has also sometimes been used to effect genuine re- 
organization where otherwise there might have been > 
too great opposition to a change for which the popu- / 
lace was not yet prepared. / 

A second factor of the broad sweep of the move- 
ment for reorganization extrinsic to educational needs 
and one which is more influential than that just in- 
dicated is the desire of school authorities to be 
" progressive." This factor is not unlike the force 
of a fad. It often operates without any clear under- 



4 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

standing of the purposes of reorganization and it not 
uncommonly results in change which, rather than being 
fundamental, restricts itself to such a superficiality as 
the mere regrouping of grades. 

REORGANIZATION FORESHADOWED 

The consciousness of a need for reform in the 
grades now associated with the junior high school is 
not new. It has been with us for more than quarter 
of a century. As early as 1893 the widely influential / 
Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School 
Studies made recommendations in considerable part 
foreshadowing present-day reorganization. The chief 
emphasis of the report, of course, bore upon readjust- 
ment within the conventional four-year high school, 
but, in the light of his earlier pronouncements, it was 
scarcely to be expected that a committee working under 
the leadership of Charles W. Eliot would ignore the 
problem of the relationship of this organization to the 
grades below the high school. For some years he had 
been urging the " shortening and enrichment of school 
programs." In harmony with this is a statement in 
the Report of the Committee of Ten where comment 
is made upon the programs of study proposed : 

" In preparing these programs, the committee were per- 
fectly aware that it is impossible to make a satisfactory 
secondary-school program, limited to a period of four 
years, and founded on the present elementary-school 
subjects and methods. In the opinion of the committee, 



MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 5 

several subjects now reserved for high schools — such 
as algebra, geometry, natural science, and foreign lan- 
guages — should be begun earlier than now, and there- 
fore within the schools classified as elementary; or, as 
an alternative, the secondary-school period should be 
made to begin two years earlier than at present, leaving 
six years instead of eight for the elementary-school 
period." 

Consonant with this comment are the recommenda- 
tions of each of the Conferences of specialists whose 
reports the Committee of Ten had before them when 
the report from which quotation has just been made 
was in preparation. The Conference on Latin urged 
the introduction of that subject into the grades below 
the ninth, while that on Modern Languages recom- 
mended similarly the introduction of elective work in 
German and French. The Conference on Mathematics 
asked for the continuation of the usual eight years 
of arithmetic, but spoke also for a place for concrete 
geometry and for algebraic expressions and symbols 
and simple equations. The Conferences in the sciences 
urged some recognition of their fields in elementary 
grades. Each of the remaining conferences made 
recommendations that called for more or less re- 
organization of elementary-school curricula in the 
general direction of a more extended recognition of 
its subject. 

If we may judge from those portions of the Report 
of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements 1 

appearing in 1899. 



6 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

touching reorganization, the six years following the 
appearance of the Report of the Committee of Ten 
did much to emphasize the demand for reform in the 
grades immediately below the ninth. In one of its 
resolutions this committee took a stand in favor of a 
" unified six-year high-school course of study beginning 
with the seventh grade." A number of considerations 
were arrayed in support of this proposal. They found 
that educators agreed that the work of the seventh and 
eighth grades "must be enriched by eliminating non- 
essentials and adding new subjects formerly taught 
only in the high school." It was their belief that these 
reforms were to be more quickly effected by making 
these grades a part of the high school. They con- 
tended that " the seventh grade, rather than the ninth, 
is the natural turning point in the child's life, as the 
age of adolescence demands new methods and wiser 
direction." They were aware of the high student mor- 
tality due to the fundamental differences of organiza- 
tion in the elementary school and in the high school, 
and they expressed the opinion that the transition from 
one to the other " might be made more natural and 
easy by changing gradually from the one-teacher 
regimen to the system of special teachers, thus avoiding 
the violent shock now commonly felt on entering the 
high school." They, like the Committee of Ten, made 
specific recommendations looking to the introduction 
of secondary-school subjects in seventh and eighth 
grades. 



MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 7 

It would not be difficult to find numerous further 
evidences of the growing consciousness of the need of 
effecting reorganization in the grades with which we 
are here concerned. We shall refer to one more report 
only, a report made in 191 3 by the Committee on the 
Economy of Time in Education, almost a decade and 
a half subsequent to the appearance of the Report of 
the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. 
From the name it bore one is led to expect this com- 
mittee to renew the emphases of the two committees 
already referred to. And this they did. But, as this 
committee deliberated during a period not remote from 
our own time, they did not rest with a mere reiteration 
of formulae which had by the time of the making of 
their report become commonplace. Instead, they car- 
ried forward the torch of educational reorganization. 
Doubtless, the advances made by them over the pre- 
ceding reports were augmented by the assurance pro- 
vided in the experimentations in reorganization which 
had in the meantime been begun. Without attempting 
to give a complete outline of the additions made by 
this committee to the thought on reorganization, it 
may be said that its report is the first to recommend 
the separation on horizontal lines, into two divisions, 
of the proposed six-year secondary-school period. One 
of the members in his individual report endorsed the 
sort of reorganization which was at the time of the 
preparation of the report finding place in a number 
of school systems — " (1) a junior high school of three 



8 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

years extending from the twelfth to the fifteenth year; 
and (2) a senior high school, also of three years, 
covering the period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth 
year." " A three-year junior high school," said this 
member, " will assure a larger number of citizens 
possessing some cultural training of secondary-school 
grade than a six-year high school." Further evidence 
of this enhanced conception of economy through re- 
organization is to be found in the recommendation of 
the provision of " vocational lines of work beginning 
at 12, 15 or 16, 18, and 20." At the beginning of 
the seventh grade pupils " are already discovering the 
personal interests and limitations which point toward 
specific types of training and life work." Reorganiza- 
tion, through shortening the period of elementary and 
general education, " provides for a large number who 
will enter vocations at 16 . . ." Heretofore the 
economy desired was largely in the interests of those 
'who will enter the professions. This offering of 
"practical studies " would have the additional ad- 
vantage of retaining in school many who would other- 
wise drop out early. Through this retention and 
through the possibility in the junior high school of 
putting a larger proportion of the population in pos- 
session of some cultural training of secondary-school 
grade, we should be making strides toward democratiz- 
ing the school system. 

The contrast of this conception of the reorganiza- 
tion that should be effected with that to be found in 



t 



MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 9 

the Report of the Committee of Ten made twenty 
years earlier is so patent as not to require elaboration. 
In conjunction with the statements of the intervening 
Committee on College Entrance Requirements it is 
unmistakable testimony of the increasing clarification 
of thought concerning reorganization of secondary 
education during those two decades. At the same 
time, the similarities of statement and the sequence 
of ideas are evidence that the widespread movement 
for reorganization in which we find ourselves to-day 
is not the impulse of a moment, the unpedigreed off- 
spring of irresponsible faddists, but the expression of 
a body of convictions that have been adding strength 
with years. 

THE EXTENT AND VARIETY OF THE MOVEMENT 

Such forces as those named in the opening para- 
graphs of this chapter, to the influence of which has 
been added the momentum of the history of the move- 
ment just epitomized, are responsible for the vast 
array of phenomena of reorganization with which we 
are now surrounded. The handful of reorganizations 
that had been effected by 19 10 and to which were 
applied the terms " junior high school " and " inter- 
mediate school " has been multiplied until at the present 
writing, a decade later, the number is rapidly nearing 
a thousand. Thousands of other communities are 
giving serious consideration to the proposal to effect 
immediate or early reorganization. Millions are being 



io THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL) 

voted by some of these cities for buildings for properly 
housing the new institution. Junior high-school text- 
books in a number of subjects have long been on the 
market. Hardly an educational convention meets 
which does not give the discussion of the problems of 
this new school a prominent place on its programs. 
Educational periodicals devote much space to articles 
on the junior high school. Departments of education 
in colleges and universities are offering courses con- 
cerned exclusively with its problems and these and 
other training institutions claim to be preparing 
teachers for it. State legislatures are enacting laws to 
authorize its establishment or to regulate its operation. 
These are some of the evidences that the junior high 
school is now one of our most engrossing educational 
concerns. 

And, as is to be expected when such a new institu- 
tion is under consideration, the extent of interest in 
the reorganization is hardly more protean than are 
the conceptions and forms of reorganization them- 
selves. The variety of purposes and their combina- 
tions espoused by advocates of the junior high school 
are almost numberless and there is much disagreement 
among them. The forms the institution takes are like- 
wise multifarious. In only two respects do the 
administrative features move toward identity, and 
these are in the mode of assignment of work to 
teachers (departmentalization or semi-departmentaliza- 
tion) and in the manner of advancement of pupils 



MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION n 

(promotion by subject). Sometimes it includes sev- 
enth and eighth grades; sometimes seventh, eighth 
and ninth; sometimes only a single grade; and, again, 
as many as four grades. Curricula for junior high 
schools take a wide variety of forms and represent 
several types. Standards in the selection of teachers 
vary greatly from community to community. Admis- 
sion requirements, methods, advisory systems, discip- 
linary and social organization, and buildings and equip- 
ment range through variation upon variation. In fact, 
the junior high school is hardly the same thing in any 
two communities. 

THE AIM OF THIS BOOK 

While this extent of dissimilarity should meet with 
approval during the earlier experimental stages of an 
institution, the junior high school has by now been 
with us long enough to urge us to take stock of its 
functions and of the features of organization by means 
of which these functions are to be performed. Cer- 
tainly, if there is anything fundamental and permanent 
in all this experimentation — as most of those who are 
in touch with the movement believe there is — we should 
now be in a position to come nearer defining it than 
current opinion and practice have thus far given evi- 
dence of doing. It is the purpose of this volume to 
contribute to the clarification of thought which is 
imperative in this chaotic situation. Toward this end 
effort is first made to establish out of current educa- 



12 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

tional thought and by the assistance of such findings 
of educational science as are available a tentative work- 
ing statement of the peculiar purposes of this new- 
institution. This is done in the chapter immediately 
following. The remaining chapters apply to the 
features of organization, i.e., to the administrative de- 
vices and changes which have found place in junior 
high schools, the test of the likelihood of the per- 
formance of those functions. 



II 



THE PECULIAR FUNCTIONS OF THE JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOL 

THE FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATION 

It is platitudinous in the extreme to say that the test 
of an educational institution is the extent to which 
it realizes the ultimate aims of education. While the 
statements of ultimate aims extant in the educational 
world are numberless and protean, the nature of many- 
recent expressions is fairly well exemplified in the 
statement of " main objectives " made by the Com- 
mission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
of the National Education Association. 1 For our uses 
this statement is somewhat more appropriate than any 
other, since it is not the conception of ultimate aims 
held by an individual, but one which has had the 
endorsement of a group of educational leaders. It 
may be said, therefore, to be more representative of 
current thought and more nearly authoritative/ This 
committee regards the following as the main objectives , 
of education: (i) health, (2) command of the fun- 1 
damental processes, (3) worthy home membership, 

1 Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education. U. S. Bureau 
of Education Jbulletin, 1918, No. 35. 

13 



14 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL; 

(4) vocation, (5) citizenship, (6) worthy use of 
leisure, and (7) ethical character. As the import of 
each of these categories is readily apparent, it is un- 
necessary to amplify. Because the third, fifth, and 
seventh of these objectives may, with little doubt, be 
comprehended by the term " social-civic " when broadly 
conceived, these seven objectives will, for convenience 
in subsequent discussion, be reduced to five. 

The fulfilment of these aims, then, being the role 
of education, it is the function of the institution upon 
which we are focussing attention in this volume, the 
junior high school, to make its contribution to the 
achievement of this end. It must assist in the realiza- 
tion of the physical, the vocational, the social-civic, 
and the avocational aims — the ultimate aims of educa- 
tion. Its relation to the realization of the aim of 
.training in the command of the fundamental processes, 
the "tools of intelligence and culture" — more a 
proximate than an ultimate aim — , may be inferred 
from the following quotation from the report of the 
commission to which reference has already been made : 
" Much of the energy of the elementary school is 
properly devoted to teaching certain fundamental proc- 
esses, such as reading, writing, arithmetical computa- 
tions, and the elements of oral and written expression. 
The facility that a child of twelve or fourteen may ac- 
quire in the use of these tools is not sufficient for 
the needs of modern life. This is particularly true 
of the mother tongue." Thus, in addition to doing 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 15 

its share in realizing the four ultimate aims, the junior 
high school will continue the training in the use of 
the tools of education begun in the elementary school. 

THE PECULIAR FUNCTIONS OF THE JUNIOR HIGH 
SCHOOL 

But an examination of the literature on the junior 
high school shows that its friends insist that this in- 
stitution is designed to facilitate the realization of these 
educational objectives to an extent impossible through 
the traditional organization. They write of certain 
" advantages " or " aims " of, or " arguments " for 
the junior high school which are readily classifiable 
as its peculiar functions, and will hereafter be so 
designated. 

There are presented at this point the results of a 
canvass of a large amount of literature dealing with 
the junior high school — a canvass made with the aim 
of discovering what are more commonly accepted as 
the functions peculiar to this form of reorganization. 
For the purposes of the canvass the literature exam- 
ined was divided into two classes, (1) public school 
documents, such as city school reports, pamphlets is- 
sued by the school authorities in description of junior 
high schools established in their communities and other 
similar materials, usually prepared by the superintend- 
ent or principal, and (2) statements of the aims, ad- 
vantages, or functions of the junior high schools by 
other educational leaders. The latter group of state- 



i6 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

merits appeared in articles or editorials in educational 
periodicals, educational books, or reports of school 
surveys. The documents prepared by the local school 
authorities and intended primarily for local consump- 
tion were assembled by means of a circular letter 
directed to the superintendents of almost two hundred 
systems which have been reported as having intro- 
duced the junior high school or the six-six organiza- 
tion, asking for copies of any printed materials that 
may have been issued touching the reorganization 
effected. Matter of the sort called for came from 
about seventy systems. In the materials from thirty 
were included what seem to have been intended as 
more or less complete statements of the " reasons " or 
" grounds " for, or " advantages " of such reorganiza- 
tion as was being effected. The statements in the 
other group have usually been prepared for a larger 
audience, although they include three statements ap- 
pearing in reports of educational surveys which have 
been intended primarily for local consumption. For 
the most part they are statements made by men of 
more than local, sometimes even national, prominence 
in education. 

In exploring Table I and Figure i, which present the 
findings of the canvass just described, for such sig- 
nificance as they may have, the reader should bear 
in mind that the task of classification sometimes pre- 
sented baffling problems and that, therefore, in a small 
proportion of instances, it is not unlikely that a mis- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 17 

construction has been placed upon the words and their 
original meaning in some part perverted. There is a 
greater possibility of such misconstruction under 
Function I and its sub-functions than for any other, 
inasmuch as the writers did not always mention 
progress toward realizing a democratic school system 
when urging one or more of these sub- functions. There 
is, however, considerable assurance of the approximate 
accuracy of the percentages for these five sub- functions, 
as well as for the ten remaining functions. 

In both table and chart the functions have been listed 
as far as possible in the order of their frequency of 
appearance. This order has been somewhat disturbed 
by the exigencies of the endeavor in some measure to 
recognize logical relationships. Nevertheless, it may 
be seen that Functions I-V (inclusive of Sub-functions 
A, B, C, D, and E) only are recognized in large pro- 
portions of statements. The remainder have not been 
as generally listed in the statements used. 

The import of the functions as tabulated to the 
writers of the statements used will be shown by quota- 
tion of typical expressions to be found in those state- 
ments. The quotations will be followed in each case 
by a brief examination of the validity of the claims of 
the function to acceptance in a working list of le- 
gitimate peculiar functions of the junior high school. 



18 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

TABLE I 

Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions of the 
Junior High School 

Peculiar Functions In Statements In Statements by 

of the in School Educational 

Junior High School Documents Leaders 

Number Per cent Number Per cent 

5 3 A. Retention of Pupils 22 73.3 18 90.0 

v-« o 

0J3 B. Economy of Time 19 63.3 17 85.0 

e~ 

pS C. Recognition of In- 

rt -m dividual Differences 16 53.3 19 95.0 

.g w D. Exploration for 

•tJ'o Guidance 12 _ 40.0 15 75.0 

$j> E. Vocational Educa- 

^j tion 12 40.0 14 70.0 

II. Recognizing the Na- 
ture of the Child.. 11 36.7 11 55.0 

III. Providing Conditions 

for Better Teaching 14 46.7 17 85.0 

IV. Securing Better Schol- 

arship .....: 6 20.0 7 35.0 

V. Improving the Discip- 
linary Situation and 
Socializing Oppor- 
tunities 14 46.7 14 70.0 

VI. Effecting Financial 

Economy 6 20.0 2 10.0 

VII. Relieving the Building 

Situation 6 20.0 1 5.0 

VIII. Continuing the Influ- 
ence of the Home. .2 6.7 — 

IX. Hastening Reform in 
Grades Above and 
Below 1 3.3 2 10.0 

X. Normalizing size of 

Classes 1 3.3 2 10.0 

XI. Relieving Teachers .. — 2 10.0 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 19 

Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions of the 
Junior High School 



Percentage 
10 £0, SO 40 60 60 70 BO 90 100 



o £ A. Retention of Pupils 

I! 

6 § B. Economy of Tine 

•i 

mi 

|| 

is 









C. Recognition of Individ- 
ual Differences 



D. Exploration for Guid- 
ance 



mmmmzmmm. 



^5 3. Vocational Educa- 
tion 

J I. Recognizing the nature of the 
Child 

HI. Providing Conditions for 
Better Teaching 

IV. Securing Better Scholar- 
ship 

V. Improving the Disciplinary Sltua 
tlon and Socializing Opportunities 



Vl.Effeotlng Financial Economy 

VI I. Relieving the Building Situa- 
tion 

VIII. Continuing the influence of 
the Home 

IX. Hastening Reform in Grades 
Above and Below 

X. normalizing the Size erf 
Classes 



^MMBjjE 



mm 



E 



XI . Relieving Teachersj 



l i ii t » « i ii i 

10 20 30 40 60 60 70 60 90 100 



Figure i.— Percentages of Statements in School Documents 
and of Educational Leaders Making Mention of the Peculiar 
Functions of the Junior High School. (Shaded, School Docu- 
ments; Black, Educational Leaders.) 



20 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



RETENTION OF PUPILS 



As the first function, the realization of a democratic 
school system, must find its meaning in the sub- 
functions A, B, C, D, and E, they will be discussed 
in the order given. Examples of the statements 
classified under retention of pupils are : the junior high 
school aims to " reduce to a minimum the elimination 
of pupils," "to facilitate the continuation of every 
child's education," " to keep a larger number of pupils 
in school for another year," to " bridge the gap " 
between the eighth and ninth grades in the traditional 
organization, or " to render smoother the transition " 
from elementary to secondary education. 

These quotations acknowledge large cognizance of 
an astounding pupil mortality from the fifth and sixth 
grades upward in the system, a mortality brought to 
light in many investigations. Inglis * has assembled 
the findings of three of these investigations, those of 
Thorndike, Ayres, and Strayer, on a comparable basis 
and shows clearly that, although ^the proportionate 
elimination is large between any two successive grades 
above the fifth, in terms of the percentage of those 
in each grade who do not enter the succeeding grade, 
it is greatest between the ninth and the tenth. As 
concerns all the six grades which it is now rather 
commonly advocated should be included in the period 

1 Inglis, Alexander : Principles of Secondary Education, pp. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 21 

of secondary education, the next largest proportionate 
mortality is between the eighth and ninth and between 
the seventh and eighth grades. The mortality between 
the grades above the ninth is relatively inconsid- 
erable. - 1 

Studies of the distribution of enrollment in the four 
years of the traditional high school also call attention 
to the sudden decrease between the ninth and tenth 
grades. Thus, Counts' * figures for the distribution of 
students in the accredited high schools of the North 
Central Association show a much larger gross as well 
as proportionate elimination between the first and 
second years of the high school than between succeed- 
ing years. t' 

While no careful thinker will ignore the enormous 
influence toward this elimination of factors that lie 
outside the school, there can be no question that our 
present organization of education is in considerable 
part to be held accountable for it. It is a truism to 
assert that there is much that is inherent in the or- 
ganization of the upper grades of the elementary school 
not calculated to conduce to longevity of the educa- 
tional career. The traditional grouping of grades into 
eight years of elementary-school work and four years 
of secondary-school work is itself an encouragement 
of .termination of school life at the close of the former 
period. But the " gap " or " break " in internal or- 

1 Counts, G. S.: Approved High Schools of the North Central 
'Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. U. S. Bureau 
of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 6, pp. 36 ff. 




22 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



ganization exceeds that of this external grouping in 
its influence upon student mortality. The factors in 
the latter making for elimination may be illustrated 
by the changes in curricular materials from the elemen- 
tary school to the secondary school, the one-teacher 
regimen of the former as contrasted with the depart- 
mentalization in the latter, and the complete discip- 
linary control in the former as compared with the 
larger freedom of behavior in the latter. 
- From facts like those just cited it is apparent that, 
as concerns holding in school a larger proportion of 
the school population for a longer period through re- 
organization, attention to reform may well be focussed 
upon the grades more commonly included in the junior 
high school, viz., the seventh, eighth, and ninth. This 
statement, however, in no sense implies an absence of 
need of reform in grades above and below those 
named. 

When we examine the factual evidence mustered in 
support of the junior high school aiming to show the 
large extent to which this function of retaining pupils 
is already being performed, we find much material, but 
very little that can endure the light of careful thought. 
Many superintendents and principals have arrayed sta- 
tistics purporting to show the increased holding power 
of the reorganized school, but almost all have left out 
of account the fact that, without reorganization along 
the lines here implicit, ttie upper grades and the high 
school have been drawing and holding larger propor- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 23 

tions of the possible school population. In a com- 
pilation from a report of the United States Commis- 
sioner of Education (19 16, Volume II), Inglis * has 
shown that the number of pupils in public secondary 
schools has increased within a quarter of a century 
from 3.4 to 12.9 per thousand population, almost quad- 
rupling the proportion of high-school students in that 
time. This has come about without reorganization 
along the lines under discussion in any considerable 
proportion of communities having high schools. This 
fact must in large measure discredit the claims that an 
increase in proportionate enrollment in the upper half 
of the public school system may be attributable en- 
tirely to the establishment of the junior high school. 
Improved economic conditions and social agencies and 
other forces outside the schools have done much to en- 
courage many families to extend the period of school- 
ing of their children. 

A similar qualification must be placed upon the 
figures presented by Douglass, 2 who compared the 
percentages of retention in junior and senior high 
schools in 191 5 with those found under the traditional 
organization six to eight years earlier by Ayres and 
Thorndike. A full reading of Douglass' report, how- 
ever, shows that he was not unaware of the fallacy in 
the comparison. Nor are the data presented by 

1 Op. cit., p. 119. 

2 Douglass, A. A.: "The Junior High School." Fifteenth 
Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
Part III, pp. 101-109. 



24 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL) 

Stetson 1 for Grand Rapids likely to be accepted with- 
out question, although one is moved to concede that 
some part of the rapidly increasing enrollment in the 
junior high-school grades, especially of boys, may be 
ascribed to the influence of reorganization. 

Childs 2 has made the most dependable investigation 
of the holding power of the junior high school which 
has so far appeared. He computed for cities of vari- 
ous populations, the percentage which the enrollment 
in grades 7, 8, and 9 was of the enrollment of the first 
six grades. This computation was made for cities in 
which the junior high school had been established and 
also for cities in which departmentalization only had 
been introduced. The percentages tended to be some- 
what greater for junior high schools than for depart- 
mental organizations in cities of less than 20,000 
population. The advantage was reversed in cities of a 
population of 20,000 and over and also when com- 
parison is made of the percentages which the enroll- 
ments in grades 10, 11, and 12 are of the first six 
grades. By a comparison of the increases between 
1907-8 and 1912-13 of "progress retention" through 
six half years of high-sixth -grade pupils in both these 
types of reorganization, he found that the advantage 



^Stetson, P. C: "A Statistical Study of the Junior High 
School from the Point of View of Enrollment." School Review, 
XXVI, 233-4S. 

" Childs, H. G. : An Investigation of the Certain Phases of the 
Reorganization Movement in the Grammar Grades of Indiana 
Public Schools, pp. 137-74. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 25 

was somewhat in favor of the departmentalized plan. 
In the latter comparison when boys alone were con- 
sidered the junior high-school plan was rather strik- 
ingly superior. 

A number of considerations detract from the feeling 
of finality given by the findings of Childs' study. One 
of the most significant of these is the failure of the 
investigator to set up a " standard " junior high school 
for the purposes of his comparisons. He classified the 
institutions for which data were supplied as junior 
high schools, departmental organizations, or non-de- 
partmental schools "on the basis of their own 
claims." 1 In the present chaos of conceptions of what 
constitutes a junior high school there can be little 
doubt that many of the schools claiming to be such are 
hardly more than departmentalizations or semi-de- 
partmentalizations. Evidences of this approximation 
of many self-styled junior high schools to mere de- 
partmentalizations is to be found in the data on the 
features of reorganization supplied elsewhere in the 
report. Again, the writer does not believe that, even 
in the few instances of rather thoroughgoing reorgani- 
zation a large increase of enrollment will immediately 
follow on account of reorganization per se; it is still 
too early to test the holding power of most of our 
junior high schools. Lastly, a convincing comparison 
should also be based upon data from a larger number 
of systems than is sometimes used, including a more 
1 Op. cit. t p. 10 



26 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

extended use of data from non-departmentalized 
schools. 

Thus, the seeker after evidence to support the con- 
tention that the junior high school tends to prolong 
the pupils' educational life is confronted by an almost 
total absence of reliable factual material. He will take 
some comfort in such findings as have been mentioned, 
because it is hardly to be expected that the increase in 
enrollment which has been found may be ascribed en- 
tirely to causes lying outside the reorganizations 
effected. He will also take assurance from the large 
likelihood that the junior high school is holding boys 
better than does the conventional organization, es- 
pecially since it is well known that boys rather than 
girls are eliminated from the latter. But he will rely 
mostly on his faith that the thoroughgoing junior high 
schools — and there are few such to-day — are destined 
in good time to overcome those causes of student mor- 
tality which lie within the school through provision, 
for example, of a wide range of curricular activities 
designed to make it possible for many who now fail 
and lose interest to find something at which they can 
succeed. They will also, in some degree, remove those 
which lie without the school, such as the indifference 
toward education of the homes from which these chil- 
dren come. Notwithstanding the absence of unequivo- 
cal affirmative evidence, there is abundant justification 
for anticipating, as one result of effective reorganiza- 
tion, a greater retentive power of the school. 



iJL 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 27 

ECONOMY OF TIME 

We are told in such expressions as the following 
that the junior high school will economize time: the 
" tools of learning may be acquired in six years " and 
" the junior high-school student [may] turn his atten- 
tion in part at least to secondary-school subjects;" in 
this institution we will have no more " unnecessary 
duplication " or " wasteful and discouraging reviews," 
but, instead, " the American common school will break 
into the secondary field;" the junior high school will 
do away with the " monotonous repetition of common 
branches prolonged unnecessarily at the expense of 
secondary subjects which should be begun; " " current 
practices [in Europe] lend no support to the policy 
of postponing entrance upon secondary-school work 
until the completion of eight or nine years' elementary 
study, ..." A number of school documents make 
mention also of shortening the period of education by 
granting credit in the senior high school for secondary- 
school work covered in the junior high school or for 
" ninth-grade work taken in the seventh and eighth 
grades." The methods set forth for economizing time 
described "are in the interest both of the pupil who 
goes on and the one who does not-^y 

In the history of the movement for reorganization 
this peculiar function was the first to be mentioned. 
Eliot in 1888 urged the shortening and enriching of 
curricula and since that time individuals and com- 






28 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOU 

mittees almost without number have importuned school 
authorities to abridge preliminary education. The 
stock argument, as is well known, has been the com- 
parison of our own with European systems of educa- 
tion. This comparison is unfavorable to our system 
in that our period of elementary education is much 
longer, the beginning of secondary and higher or pro- 
fessional education thereby being indefensibly delayed. 
The persistent emphasis upon this need for economy 
of time has been followed by a number of efforts in 
the direction recommended. Examination of school 
documents touching on this problem of economy of 
time discovers that the most common of these efforts 
is introducing into the seventh and eighth grades such 
secondary-school subjects as the foreign languages and 
some supra-arithmetical mathematics. This is often 
done without at the same time aiming to shorten the 
usual twelve-year duration of elementary and second- 
ary education. Frequently, however, the earlier intro- 
duction of secondary-school subjects is accompanied 
by an administrative feature which is in the direction 
of cutting down this twelve-year period. Examples of 
the latter are to be found in those school documents 
which say, " Many graduates of the eighth grade enter 
the high school with one or two high-school credits/' 
" credit is given for ninth-grade work taken in seventh 
and eighth grades," or "pupils who take [a foreign 
language] three years will receive two units of credit 
in the senior high school." The instances of more 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 29 

daring variation from the norm of traditional practice 
that set out to reduce this period by a year or more 
for all pupils are deserving of special mention. With 
these must be included the reorganization instituted 
in Solvay, New York, in 191 5, in which, after the 
conclusion of a six-year elementary-school period, the 
pupil who does not shift courses during his secondary- 
school career will complete it in five years. Another 
instance is the plan in East Chicago, Indiana, in which 
the program is so arranged that the twelfth year aims 
to cover the equivalent of the work of the first year 
of college. Somewhere between these two extremes 
of method of (1) granting credit in the years of the 
traditional high school for secondary-school work cov- 
ered during seventh and eighth grades, and (2) boldly 
cutting down the twelve-year period to eleven for the 
normal pupil is that practice, borrowed from the four- 
year high school, which reduces this period for those 
of superior ability by allowing them the opportunity 
of carrying more than the normal load of work. No 
inconsiderable number of systems by this means 
shorten the period of elementary and secondary educa- 
tion by a half-year or more for stronger students. 

But economy of time through the earlier introduc- 
tion of secondary-school subjects into pupils' programs 
must be paralleled by the reduction in the amount of 
time devoted to the subjects regarded as appropriate 
to the elementary school. The two methods are in- 
evitably complementary. Moreover, if the latter should 



30 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



not be possible, the former must be regarded as in- 
opportune. Since the appearance of the report of the 
Committee on the Economy of Time, in which was 
presented an enhanced conception of the procedure by 
which economy is to be effected, we have had notable 
progress in the second method. A number of inves- 
tigations have been made, some almost conclusive, 
others suggestive of large possibilities of economy in 
the elementary field. Space is available for reference 
to a few only of these investigations. 

Some of these studies have been concerned with the 
problem of making courses in the elementary-school 
subjects " in the light of social surveys of what men 
need in knowledge, habits, powers, skills and values." 1 
One concerned itself with the errors made in English 2 
by the children enrolled in the elementary schools of a 
large city system and the preparation of a course in 
grammar aiming at eliminating those errors. The 
findings prophesy a much smaller body of material for 
the course in grammar than has usually found a place 
in elementary-school curricula. Other investigations 
have sought to determine what words the adult will be 
most likely to find it necessary to spell 3 in material 
which he writes, with a view to preparing a minimal 

1 Report of the Committee on Economy of Time in Education. 
U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 38. 

2 Charters, W. W., and Miller, E. : A Course of Study in 
Grammar Based upon the Grammatical Errors of School Chil- 
dren of Kansas City, Missouri. Bulletin of the University of 
Missouri, Vol. 16, No. 2. 

8 E. g M Ayres, Leonard P.: Measurement of Ability in Spell- 
ing. Russell Sage Foundation. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 31 

list which all children should be taught to spell cor- 
rectly. The evidence of these studies points toward a 
much smaller list of words than we have in the past 
attempted to teach to our elementary-school children. 
Still another investigation sought to discover the range 
of abilities needed by the adult in arithmetic, 1 and, 
like the preceding, gives assurance of economizing 
time through elimination of non-essentials and through 
the presentation only of " what men need." 

Economy of time in elementary subjects through 
scientifically selected methods, also advocated by the 
Committee on the Economy of Time, is perhaps best 
exemplified in the Report of the Committee on the 
Economy of Time in Learning. 2 This report essays 
the presentation of the principles of method, derived 
from scientific investigation, in teaching the common- 
school branches of writing, reading, spelling, arith- 
metic, drawing, and music. While it would be fatuity 
to contend that in this report or in those investigations 
into the materials of instruction to which reference has 
been made we have had assembled all the finalities 
requisite to a full solution of our problem, and while 
it seems improbable that the work in the fundamental 
processes may be limited to six years as has often been 
proposed, there is ample evidence that eight years is 

1 Wilson, G. M. : A Survey of the Social and Business Use 
of Arithmetic. Chap. VIII in Sixteenth^ Yearbook of the Na- 
tional Society for the Study of Education, Part I. 

2 Fourth Report of the Committee on the Economy of Time 
in Education. Eighteenth Yearbook of the National Society for 
the Study of Education, Part II. 



32 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

more than should be devoted to equipping the normal 
child with such command of these tools as he will need 
in order to make possible his larger functional edu- 
cation. 

The conclusion just drawn has the additional sup- 
port to be found in the opportunity of abridging the 
time devoted to elementary education by eliminating 
many of the reviews with which curricula are padded. 
Verification of the fact of the prevalence and fre- 
quency of these reviews is furnished anyone who takes 
the pains to examine a number of typical courses of 
study. 1 

Genuine economy will require that the secondary or 
other subjects displacing the eliminated elementary- 
school materials, and the methods of presenting them, 
be subjected to the same sort of scientific scrutiny 
and vital educational philosophy as is illustrated in the 
studies to which reference has been made. Much less 
progress has been made in this portion of the task, 
perhaps in no small part owing to the unfortunate 
belief in the relative inviolability of the conventional 
high-school curriculum. Introduction of these ma- 
terials unchanged into the program for seventh and 
eighth grades may hardly be regarded as a large stride 
toward democratizing the school system. We may 
anticipate that scientific methods of selection will bring 

1 Carolyn Hoefer presents a corroboratory study in the Ele- 
mentary School Journal, XIX, 545-54. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 33 

into the program of the junior high school such por- 
tions of traditional high-school curricula and the 
methods of their presentation, or such new materials 
not yet finding a place in either elementary or second- 
ary grades, as will make for genuine economy in the 
interests of such democratization. Such an economy 
will operate not merely to shorten the period of educa- 
tion for those who may be fortunate enough to be per- 
mitted to enter the professions, but in addition will 
provide a more effective education for the entire pos- 
sible school population. 

It should go almost without saying that no scheme 
of education is economical of time which does not have 
full regard for each pupil's progressing at a rate ap- 
propriate to him. A plan of organization which at 
any point requires him to mark time is wasteful. While 
little conclusive evidence is at hand to show that the 
junior high school is economizing time by moving all 
students as rapidly as they should go, it is apparent 
that expectation is largely in its favor. Through pro- 
motion by subject there will be eliminated the repeti- 
tion of work in which a pupil has made a satisfactory 
record — a repetition which is all too frequently forced 
upon him because he has failed in one or more subjects 
under the conditions of promotion common to our 
upper elementary grades. The junior high school also, 
because it brings together larger numbers of children 
of given ages and grades than does the conventional 



34 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

plan, may more readily group them in sections of ap- 
proximately equal ability and adjust courses of study 
to the differences in ability of each group. 

And it must be regarded as in the interests of econ- 
omy of time for the over-age but normal child in 
the fifth or sixth grades to be advanced to the junior 
high school a year or two before his arrival at the 
close of the compulsory period and there to be given 
work more nearly appropriate to his maturity and the 
fact of the imminence of his elimination from school. 

By means of the complementary processes of shorten- 
ing the period devoted to elementary subjects and of 
the earlier introduction of functional secondary or 
other subjects — these processes to be guided through- 
out by the application of scientific method and a vital 
educational philosophy — and by means of administra- 
tive devices which will advance each pupil to higher 
levels as rapidly as he should go, the junior high school 
may be confidently expected in a democratic way to 
achieve a large economy of time. 



RECOGNITION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

Illustrative expressions concerning the function of 
recognizing individual differences are : " One of the 
chief motives behind the junior high school has been 
the greater adaptability to the individual needs and in- 
dividual differences ; " the junior high school will rec- 
ognize " inherent and universal natural differentia- 
tion;" it will make "better provision for individual 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 35 

differences, abilities arid tastes ; " it will make pro- 
vision for "preparation for the diversified duties of 
democratic society by giving full recognition to in- 
dividual capacities and individual training;" it "will 
recognize individual differences and group pupils ac- 
cording to interests and ability : " it will " meet the 
varying mental capacities and economic needs of 
pupils; " it will " offer opportunity for over-age pupils 
regardless of scholastic attainments." 

Variation illustrated. — There is abundant evidence 
of the fact of variation and of the need of making 
some recognition of it in the instruction and adminis- 
tration of our schools. Age-grade distributions now 
available for many school systems have emphasized 
the wide variation in chronological age in a single 
grade. This may be illustrated by the situation found 
in the seventh grade of the Ashland, Oregon, public 
schools in 191 5. x In a group of only 82 pupils there 
were representatives of each age from eleven to seven- 
teen, inclusive, showing a range of six years between 
the youngest and the oldest pupils (See Figure 2). 
Tables similarly constructed for school systems en- 
rolling larger numbers of pupils in this grade show 
ranges of seven, eight, and even nine years. It is 
shown later in discussing the nature of the child, that 
these great differences in chronological age are paral- 
leled by comparable differences in measurements of 

1 Ayer, F. C, and others : Constructive Survey of the Public 
School System of Ashland, Oregon. 



36 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

physique, such as height, weight, lung capacity, and 
strength of grip. There are also wide differences in 
sex maturity of pupils of the same grade — , so wide, 
indeed, that some pupils enrolled in the seventh grade 
of a single school have been sexually mature for three 
or four years, while at the other extreme will be found 
those who will not arrive at pubescence until two, 
three, or even four years have passed. 

But the variation is not physical only; it is also men- 
tal. The latter is illustrated by Figures 3-6. The first 
of these figures shows the distributions of the scores 
made in the Otis Group Intelligence Tests by 118 pupils 
in the eighth grade of the Santa Ana, California, pub- 
lic schools 1 and of 1 14 pupils in the ninth grade of the 
Thornton Township, Illinois, High School. 2 Both dis- 
tributions emphasize the wide range of mental ability 
found in the same grade. In both groups there are 
children who obtained scores approximately three 
times as high as those obtained by children at the 
lower limit of the distribution. 

The remaining figures (4-6), presenting the results 
of measurement of performance of seventh- or eighth- 
grade pupils in school subjects of study, display vari- 
ation no less in extent. Figure 4, adapted from Gray, 3 

1 Henry, M. B. : Mental Testing as an Aid in Guidance and 
Classification of School Children. Bulletin No. 1, Department 
of Research, Santa Ana, California, Public Schools. 

2 These scores made available through the kindness of Mr. 
O. W. Snarr, graduate student, University of Chicago. 

3 Gray, W. S. : Studies of Elementary-School Reading through 
Standardized Tests. Supplementary Educational Monographs, 
Vol. I, No. 1, p. 116. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 37 

shows a strikingly wide variation in comprehension 
(" quality ") of silent reading among 271 pupils in the 
seventh grade of the Cleveland schools. Figure 5, 
taken from Willing' s study of composition in the 
Grand Rapids schools, 1 illustrates the wide differences 
found in the work of written expression. Figure 6, 
presenting the distribution of scores of 78 seventh-, 
grade pupils in Ellensburg, Washington, 2 as tested by 
the Woody Mutiplication Scale, Series B, is illustra- 
tive of a similar variation. 

Almost all of these figures, despite the small number 
of pupils involved, approximate, at least roughly, the 
" surface of normal distribution " which finds most 
of the pupils grouped about the central measures of 
quality of performance with a symmetrical attenuation 
of numbers of pupils above and below the central 
measures. The persisting recurrence of this distribu- 
tion has itself been no unimportant factor in convinc- 
ing the scientific educator of the need of recognizing 
differences found. If such distributions appeared only 
occasionally, we should feel much less moved to 
action. 

Another factor urging such recognition is the ex- 
panding range of variation as we proceed from grade 
to grade. The range is usually wider in the sixth 
grade than it is in the fifth, and in the seventh grade 

1 School Survey, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 92. 

2 Made available through the kindness of Dr. Clifford Woody 
of the Department of Education, University of Washington, 
Seattle. 



38 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



than it is in the sixth. This tendency is partially 
checked in the upper elementary grades by what is 
termed " qualitative elimination," the tendency of the 
pupils doing poorer work to drop out near the termina- 
tion of the compulsory school period. It will be defi- 
nitely re-established, however, if the first peculiar 
function of retention of pupils discussed above is 
performed by the junior high school, and will, conse- 
quently, make increasing demands upon instruction and 
administration. 

The tendency to diversity of interests of children 
may be briefly illustrated by Table II which names the 
occupational choices of 324 thirteen-year-old boys in 
the Springfield, Illinois, public schools. 1 The choices 



Number 
of Pupils 

55 - 
50 - 
25 - 



15 - 
10 - 

!•- 
- C 



11 12 15 



14 15 16 17 



Figure 2.— Distribution by Ages of 82 Pupils in the Seventh 
Grade of the Ashland, Oregon, Public Schools. 



1 Ay res, Leonard P. : The Public Schools of Springfield, Illi- 
nois. Russell Sage Foundation. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 39 



Number 
of Pupils 

22 - 
















H 


20 - 




< 




18 - 








... 1 

« 

• 


16 — 
14 - 
12 - 
10 - 
8 - 
6 - 
4 - 
















1 
1 

1 









1 

■fl 











1 

H 


2 — 




r— - i 


60- 
59 


60- 
69 


70- 
79 


80- 
69 


90- 
99 


100- 
109 


110- 
H9 


120- 
129 


130- 
139 


140- 150- 
149 159 


160- 
169 


170- 
179 



Scorer 



Figure 3. — Distribution of Total Point Scores Made by 118 
Pupils in the Eighth Grade of the Santa Ana, California, Public 
Schools (Solid Line) and by 114 Pupils in the Ninth Grade of 
the Thornton Township, Illinois, High School (Broken Line). 



wumber 
Of Pupils 

70- 



60- 

60- 

f * 
40- 

30- 

20- 

10- 



0- 10- 20- 56^ 40- 60- 60- 70- 
9 19 29 29 49 59 69 79 



Scores 



Figure 4. — Distribution of Scores for Quality of Silent Read- 
ing of 271 Pupils in the Eighth Grade of the Cleveland, Ohio, 
Public Schools. 



40 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



Number 

of Pupils 

40 - 












35 - 








30 - 
1 

25 - 






20 * 






15 - 

10 - 

5 - 








1 


n . \ 


40 


50 


60 70 
Scores 


80 


90 



Figure 5. — Distribution of Scores in Composition of 115 Pu- 
pils in Grade VIII-2 in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, Public 
Schools. 



number 
of Pupils 

21 - 










10 - 












18 M 

18 - 










6 - 










9 - 


, — 1 — ! 




— 1 


3- 

4 


5. 7- 

6 8 


9- 
10 

llumbE 


ll- 
lS 

r of 


13- 

14 

Probl 


16- 
ie 

erne 


17- 
18 


16- 
20 



Figure 6.— Distribution of 78 Pupils in the Seventh Grade of 
the Ellensburg, Washington, Public Schools, according to the 
Number of Problems in Multiplication Solved. 



of girls of the same age-group, not reproduced here, 
make the array of interests of children of this age even 
more diverse. Interests of children are, of course, not 
restricted to vocational lines. Those which may be 
classified in social, recreational, athletic, and other 
groups are perhaps just as multitudinous. Many of 
these interests are deserving of recognition in the edu- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 41 



TABLE II. OCCUPATIONAL CHOICES OF 13-YEAR-OLD 

BOYS IN THE SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, PUBLIC 

SCHOOLS. 



Number 
Occupation. Choosing 

Farmers 40 

Machinists 26 

Electricians 26 

Retail merchants 22 

Locomotive Engineers 19 

Bookkeepers 19 

Lawyers 17 

Civil engineers 15 

Retail clerks 12 

Carpenters 10 

Doctors 9 

Factory hands 7 

Miners 5 

Traveling salesmen 5 

Plumbers 5 

Architects 5 

Stenographers 5 

Teamsters 4 

Butchers 4 

Stationery engineers 3 

Office clerks 3 

Manufacturers 3 

placksmiths 3 

Teachers 3 

Porters 3 

Bakers 3 

Musicians 3 

Train dispatchers 2 

Street car conductors 2 

Laundry owners 2 

Patternmakers 2 

Florists 2 

Printers 2 



Number 

Occupation. Choosing 

Artists 2 

Aviators 2 

Managers and superintend- 
ents 2 

Barbers 

Contractors and builders. . . 

Railroad foremen 

Restaurant owners 

Mail carriers 

Brakemen 

Linemen 

Tailors 

Mblders 

Shoemakers 

Hostlers 

City firemen 

Sign writers 

Plasterers and paperhang- 
ers 

Chauffeurs 

Bankers 

Commission merchants 

Dairymen 

Undertakers 

Stereotypers 

Dentists 

Harness makers 

Politicians 

Baseball players 

Soldiers 

Waiters 

Window trimmers 

Learn some trade 



cational process, especially as the pupil nears the time 
of taking his place in adult life and activity. 

The factors of variation. — It may not be out of place 
here to say a word concerning each factor of such 
variation as is found in school grades, inclusive of 



42 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



those peculiarly operative in the grades we now com- 
monly associate with the junior high school. They 
may be classified for our purposes as (a) inherited 
and (b) environmental factors and those attributable 
to (c) stage of maturity and to (d) sex. 

We no longer question the determination of physical 
and mental traits by biological heredity, and we are be- 
coming increasingly aware of the definite limits upon 
the possibilities of training fixed by the inheritance 
with which nature has endowed the individual. There 
is general agreement among the informed that there 
are differences, due to heredity both in physique and 
mentality, too great to be bridged by any adjustment of 
training. 

Environmental influences are also ordinarily be- 
lieved to be potent in making for variation between in- 
dividuals of identical native endowment. Among 
these environmental influences are the kind of previous 
education in school, home conditions, inclusive of in- 
tellectual traditions, occupations, and recreational and 
other interests of members of the family, and neighbor- 
hood surroundings. These are in turn determined in 
no small part by " race differences," especially in cities 
whose populations are constituted in considerable pro- 
portions of recent immigration of peoples whose tradi- 
tions and attitudes are notably unlike those of peoples 
who came to our shores a generation or more ago. 
These race differences, particularly as concerns mental 
differences, are now regarded as social rather than 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 43 

biological, since "present-day anthropology does not 
pretend that any of the characteristic mental powers, 
such as memory, inhibition, abstraction, logical abil- 
ity, are feeble or lacking in any race." x " There can 
be little doubt", says Boas, 2 "that in the main the 
mental characteristics of man are the same all over 
the world." 

Mention has already been made of the wide varia- 
tion in progress toward maturity, as measured by 
chronological and physiological age, to be found in 
any one of the grades included in the junior high 
school. The factors of biological heredity and en- 
vironment must be admitted to be influential in deter- 
mining these differences in maturity. The school 
itself — an environmental influence — is to be held 
accountable for somewhat unduly accentuating them. 
Sex differences also affect this variation, as girls on 
the average mature one to two years earlier than boys. 

The differences between boys and girls are more 
in the nature of differences in physical make-up and 
in interests and tastes than in intellectual capacity. 
Equality in native mental capacity is now seldom ques- 
tioned. The differences in physique which manifest 
themselves at puberty, among them the greater robust- 
ness of the male, are too obvious to require, demonstra- 
tion. The differences in interests and tastes are also 

1 Thomas, Wm. I. : Race Psychology : Standpoint and Ques- 
tionnaire, with Particular Reference to the Immigrant and 
the Negro. American Journal of Sociology, XVII, 725-57, May, 
1912. 

3 Boas, F. : The Mind of Primitive Man, p. 105. 



44 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

readily apparent. It is difficult, if not impossible, 
however, to ascribe these definitely either to differ- 
ences in native endowment or to the suggestions of the 
social organism in which boys and girls grow up. It 
is more than likely that they are attributable to both. 
/"An individual pupil is, of course, the product of the 
action of all the factors we have thus briefly described. ) 
This fact is anticipative of an almost endless variety 
of make-up of pupils, as it is hardly to be expected 
that there will be many pupils in whom all the factors 
will be identically operative. The " average " child, 
as is often stated, is non-existent. The combination of 
factors will sometimes operate to diminish differences, 
but it will often make for wider differences than would 
otherwise be possible. This may be illustrated by the 
case of the child who is endowed with an inferior 
mentality who is born into surroundings unfavorable 
to intellectual progress or by the contrasting instance 
of one of superior mentality nurtured in a home in 
which the intellectual traditions and culture are of a 
high grade. 

How the differences are to be recognised. — A big 
problem for education is to determine in what direc- 
tions the individual differences in ability and interest 
are to be fostered and in what directions we should 
endeavor to diminish them. The solution must de- 
pend upon our decision as to the extent to which, in 
the realization of each of the ultimate aims of edu- 
cation set forth in the opening paragraphs of the 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 45 

present chapter, we desire to achieve, on the one hand, 
differentiation and, on the other, similarity of personal 
make-up. There will be no disagreement with the 
statement that, as concerns the physical aim, our en- 
deavors will be to bring our school population up to 
a uniformly high level of physical efficiency. But to 
accomplish this we cannot rely upon identity of educa- 
tional procedure, since we find in the seventh grade, 
for instance, because of the varying operation of the 
factors of heredity, environment, maturity, and sex, 
an almost endless variety of physical organisms. Each 
of these will require some measure of individual treat- 
ment. An analogous situation obtains in regard to 
the achievement of the social-civic aim. In the voca- 
tional aim we shall need to strive more for differentia- 
tion. In the aim for training for the proper use of 
leisure time we shall probably find it desirable to secure 
both differentiation and similarity. For instance, while 
all children should be taught to make recreational use 
of reading, it will be necessary and desirable to guide 
reading interests in some part along diverging channels. 
Again, for those who are natively well-endowed 
musically it will be desirable to encourage training 
for participation by performance and for appreciation. 
Tor those not as well endowed appreciation only should 
be our objective. 

The relation of this pressing need of recognition 
of individual differences to the demand for reorganiza- 
tion is not far to seek. In r.ecent years there have 



46 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

been many commendable efforts at improvement in 
school organization and methods of instruction in the 
grades of the elementary school directed toward such 
recognition. These have been well summarized by 
Freeland, 1 who, in a chapter on methods of adjust- 
ing school work to individual needs, makes mention 
of the necessity of studying each child, individualizing 
the recitation and assignments, adapting school re- 
quirements and courses to special cases, and modifying 
school machinery through provision of more frequent 
promotion, special classes, and special periods for in- 
dividual work. 

These modifications in school practice may be ade- 
quate for grades below the sixth or seventh, but with 
the greater imperativeness of recognizing individual 
differences at about this time, growing out of their 
actual increase and the child's rapid approach to 
maturity, they can no longer suffice. The schools 
must have recourse to the additional opportunities for 
such recognition provided by the junior high school 
in the expanded differentiation of work through parti- 
ally variable curricula,- groups moving at differing 
rates, promotion by subject, and supervised study. 
The first of these features is designed to recognize 
differences both in ability and interests. It is especi- 
ally well suited for that point in their school careers 
when many children must and all children should 



1 Freeland, G. E. 
XV, pp. 341-67. 



Modern Elementary School Practice, Chap. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

begin to give more serious thought to vocational choice. 
The second is already being provided in some elemen- 
tary schools, but may be seen to be more frequently 
feasible in the junior high schools with their larger 
numbers of children in any grade. The third makes 
allowance for the fact that many children cannot 
do equally well in all subjects of study. The last, 
although sometimes introduced in the elementary 
school, is more frequently found in the junior high 
school. One of the advantages rather commonly as- 
cribed to it is its adaptability to recognizing individual 
differences. 

Concisely, the junior high school, through the feat- 
ures of its organization which are impossible or less 
possible of provision in the traditional elementary 
school, will make a nearer approach to giving each 
child the kind of education he needs. This is a better 
approximation to democracy in education than is the 
complete identity of training for all children at which 
most schools still seem to be aiming. 

EXPLORATION FOR GUIDANCE 

Under exploration for guidance, educational and 
vocational, have Teen'classined statements similar to 
these : " There will be an opportunity for pupils to ex- 
plore several fields to see where they fit," — they will 
thus "have a basis for making a selection when the 
time for specialization comes ;" " in such a school it 
is possible in various ways to test each child and thereby 






THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

find out what are his natural interests, his ambitions, 
and his capacities ;" the junior high school makes " pro- 
vision for educational and vocational information and 
guidance ;" the training in the practical arts " may help 
toward vocation finding.' , Here also have been classi- 
fied those statements speaking of " prevocational edu- 
cation " in the sense of a curricular organization which 
allows the pupil to sample a number of activities with 
a view to a more intelligent choice of occupation. 
Other uses of this term have been classified under the 
peculiar function next following, vocational education. 
This function of exploration for guidance is corol- 
larial to the function just discussed, the recognition of 
individual differences, and, therefore, requires no ex- 
tended justification. Granted that there are differ- 
ences among our pupils sufficiently important to be 
recognized, it follows that we must provide the ma- 
chinery for their discovery. Manifestly, also, this 
function must be performed before the differences may 
be discerningly recognized. The fact that reorganiza- 
tion of the right sort may be expected to hold a larger 
proportion of the children of school age than is be- 
ing retained in school at present will bring additional 
need for the discharge of this obligation, just as it will 
bring greater need for the recognition of individual 
differences. It is likewise particularly urgent in the 
grades properly to be included in the junior high school, 
because it is in them that the bulk of elimination from 
school takes place. On account of the imminence for 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 49 

many of the end of the school career and also on 
account of rapidly approaching maturity for all, there 
is in these grades a notable tendency to, as well as an 
appropriateness of, concern in the choice of an occupa- 
tion. 

It is to be conceded that there is some opportunity 
for exploration in the conventional school organization. 
The statement often made, that success in current 
school curricula is no index of success in adult life, 
does not square with the facts. The selective value 
of even the most conservative curriculum is incon- 
testible. 

On the other hand, neither such a curriculum nor 
those in the better elementary schools, extended as they 
now are by the addition of such subjects as shopwork 
and the home arts, can adequately perform this func- 
tion. We shall need to have a thoroughgoing reorgan- 
ization in the grades under consideration before we 
may canvass the child's abilities and interests satis- 
factorily or permit him to test them out. This purpose 
may not be accomplished without a much enriched and 
enlarged program of studies, including a wide range of 
academic and practical-arts subjects, administered with 
the performance of this function specifically in mind. 
Nor may we accomplish it without teachers who, being 
more in the nature of specialists in the lines they are 
teaching, have had more generous contacts with the 
world's work than have most of our elementary- 
school teachers. With such a program and such teach- 



50 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

ers it will be possible for the child to become ac- 
quainted through participation and vicariously with 
the chief departments of human knowledge and activ- 
ity. Add to these such features of school machinery 
as mental and vocational testing and a wide range of 
student activities, and the enhanced possibilities of 
exploration in the junior high school are still more 
apparent. Although these and the kind of program 
referred to are not yet frequently introduced into 
schools so named, the movement is distinctly in that 
direction. 

The feasibility of providing most of these features 
may be seen to be dependent upon the presence in a 
given school of a larger number of children than are 
to be found in the upper grades of the usual ele- 
mentary school. Therefore, the concentration of pupils 
accompanying the establishment of the junior high 
school should be regarded as distinctly encouraging 
such provisions 

The more extended characterization of the features 
essential to the performance of this function is de- 
ferred to subsequent chapters. 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 
</ 

v Under the head of the function of vocational educar 
tion have been placed such statements as affirm that 
the junior high school is " helpful in . . . vocational 
training. Graduates of the junior high school would 
be old enough and would have received excellent train- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 51 

ing to enter a trade school or begin an apprenticeship." 
Again, this institution will " fit each individual, at 
least in a general way, to become an efficient worker 
in his chosen field." In the same vein is the state- 
ment that " it is possible and highly desirable [in the 
junior high school] to give [the pupils] such general 
training ... as shall enable them readily to adapt 
themselves to the requirements of whatever occupa- 
tion they finally enter." A few speak of prevocational 
education in an almost identical sense of general vo- 
cational education. A few others think they see in 
this new institution the opportunity for intensive 
training for specific vocations, although the trend of 
thought is clearly not in the latter direction. 

The beginnings of vocational education are guar- 
anteed to the pupil in the junior high school by the 
full performance of the function just discussed, ex- 
ploration for guidance. If the pupil in this school, 
for purposes of guidance, is permitted to participate in 
a generous variety of vocational activities, he is at 
the same time receiving what may be termed " general " 
vocational training which should stand him in good 
stead, should he later enter, with or without subsequent 
vocational training, any specific occupation represented 
in the exploratory courses. Proper opportunities for 
exploration thus constitute, especially if the methods 
and processes of industry are illustrated, a sort of gen- 
eral vocational education which is a by-product of the 
achievement of another important function. This 



52 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL; 

measure of vocational education meets with little 
objection. 

It is around the proposal to provide in the junior 
high school more extended training for specific voca- 
tions that most of the disagreement centers. Those 
who contend for it are prone to bring the charge that 
the failure to concede the necessity for such an ex- 
tent of vocational education by its opponents is due 
to the trepidation of tradition-bound educators to en- 
trance upon a program of serious vocational education. 
While this may not be wholly untrue, (it must be ap- 
parent that there are real grounds for hesitancy. One 
of these is the relative immaturity of most of those 
enrolled in the junior high-school grades and the 
concomitant danger of thus early committing the pupil 
to narrow specialization^ Another and very important 
one is what appears to be the infeasibility of the pro- 
posal, which has been well expressed in the report of 
the Cleveland Survey, from which the following is 
quoted : 



" In the junior high school, as in the elementary school, 
the greatest difficulty in the way of trade training for 
specific occupations lies in the small number of pupils 
who can be expected, within the bounds of reasonable 
probability, to enter a single trade. Hand and machine 
composition, the largest of the printing trades, will serve 
as an example. In a junior high school of 1,000 pupils, 
boys and girls, the number of boys who are likely to 
become compositors is about five. But to teach this 
trade printing equipment occupying considerable space is 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 53 

necessary, together with a teacher who has had some 
experience or training as a printer. The expense per 
pupil for equipment, for the space it occupies, and for 
instruction renders special training for such small classes 
impracticable. All of the skilled occupations, with the 
exception perhaps of the machinist's trade, are in the 
same case. An attempt to form separate classes for each 
of the eight largest trades in the city would result in 
two classes of not over five pupils, three classes of not 
over ten pupils, and only one of over thirteen pupils." 1 

The surveyors proceed to recommend the provision 
in the junior high schools of Cleveland of a " general 
industrial course " for " those boys who, on the basis 
of their own selection or that of their parents, are 
likely to enter industrial pursuits." 

There is grave danger, however, in accepting recom- 
mendations on a local situation for universal applica- 
tion. It must be remembered that the Cleveland recom- 
mendations contemplated the establishment also of a 
separate vocational school where special training for 
all the important skilled occupations of the city could 
be given to those of proper age. It is conceivable 
that local considerations will sometimes urge provision 
within the junior high-school grades of training for 
specific occupations, especially in communities smaller 
than Cleveland where it is inexpedient to support 
separate vocational schools. This will be particularly 
necessary if there is larger proportional representation 
in these communities of special occupations due to the 

1 Lutz, R. R. : Wage Earning and Education, Cleveland Founda- 
tion Survey, pp. 48-49. 



54 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

presence of certain industries. Examples of such a 
situation would be communities of ten to twenty- 
thousand population in which there are one or two 
dominating industries calling for large numbers of 
skilled workers in but a few lines, as, for instance, 
machinists or furniture workers. Certainly, junior 
high schools in smaller agricultural communities can 
not fail to give some special training for farming pur- 
suits, especially to boys whose school work is soon 
to be interrupted. The junior high schools of Ver- 
mont, 1 some of which are in communities where the 
provision of senior high-school work would be inad- 
visable, may be judged to be making just such an 
educational offering. Under this head would come 
the extended training in the home arts which should 
be offered in most junior high schools, at least to 
those girls who are destined to leave school without 
attending the senior high school. A large number of 
over-age children in the grades of the junior high 
school should always raise the question of the advisa- 
bility of caring for their needs of specialization in the 
event that those needs are not or should not be cared 
for elsewhere in the system. These considerations are 
not adduced to support a conclusion that every junior 
high school must make provision for specialization of 
its pupils, but rather to ward off the opposite convic- 
tion, now too commonly held, that junior high schools 

1 Hill, C. M. : Vermont Junior High Schools. State of Ver- 
mont, State Board of Education, Bulletin No. I, 1918. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 55 

should always refrain from giving such special train- 
ing. Decision in one direction or another on this 
important matter should not be made without a careful 
canvass of the local situation. 

The bearing of the performance of this function 
by the junior high school upon the justification of the 
establishment and continuance of the special prevoca- 
tional school is unequivocal: while the failure to re- 
form the work of the upper grades was sufficient vindi- 
cation for the latter, the introduction of the former 
institution leaves its establishment or maintenance 
without defense. The concentration of pupils accom- 
panying the introduction of the junior high-school 
plan makes it possible to do as much as, or more, 
along the lines of preliminary vocational education 
than may be accomplished in a separate prevocational 
school, and this also under auspices strikingly more 
democratic. 

RECOGNIZING THE NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Recognizing the nature of the child at adolescence 
is less frequently proposed as a peculiar function of 
reorganization than are all the preceding and at least 
two of the succeeding functions in Table I and Figure 
I. The mode of expression ranges from the. very 
simple statement that the junior high school was 
" called into existence to provide an educational transi- 
tion for the intermediate period between childhood 
and maturity" to the more rhetorical of which the 



56 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

following is representative : " It secures better adapta- 
tion of subject-matter, methods, and discipline to the 
adolescent age. The pubescent, or early adolescent, 
period begins with most children at the age of twelve 
or thirteen. With this period come important changes 
in physical structure and function, with decided cor- 
responding changes in mental development. The boy 
of twelve or thirteen is not what he was at nine or ten. 
His childhood may still be in sight, but he has rounded 
a corner [sic] ; he has passed a new milestone of life; 
by fourteen or fifteen he has gone over a hill and 
left his childhood days and ways behind " (!) 

On account of the controversial character of the 
field involved, it is impossible to present substantiation 
for this peculiar function which can win anything like 
universal acceptance. There is, nevertheless, enough 
evidence, obtained by the methods of science and of 
common observation, that borders on the indubitable 
to furnish broad grounds for urging fundamental 
changes in school organization. 

The most incontestable of this evidence concerns the 
physiological changes of oncoming maturity. It has 
been shown by Burk 1 that increments of stature in 
boys tend to become pronounced between the ages of 
twelve and one-half and fifteen and one-half years. 
In girls they appear one to two years earlier. These 
are paralleled by notable increases in weight during 

1 Burk, F. : Growth of Children in Height and Weight. Amer- 
ican Journal of Psychology, IX, p. 262. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 57 

the same periods and, according to Smedley, 1 by in- 
creases in lung capacity. For girls the increases in 
the respect last named are not as marked as they are 
for boys, nor do they continue through as long a 
period. Unfortunately, the data used are compilations 
of single observations of large numbers of children 
at varying ages and not several measurements period- 
ically for a number of years of the same individuals. 
It is almost certain that individual histories of the 
latter sort, if they were available in large numbers and 
were synchronized from the point of the first appear- 
ance of the signs of the " onset of puberty/' would 
show more striking increments than those to which 
reference has been made. The fact of variation 
by three or four years of this onset in either 
sex very probably tends to level down the average 
increase. 

Another fact of physical change at adolescence prob- 
ably not exceeded or even equalled in importance of 
influence by any other so far mentioned is the modifica- 
tion of the relative rates of growth of the heart and 
arteries. The measurements of Landois are frequently 
cited in this connection: the ratio of the size of the 
heart to the cross section of the arteries changes from 
25 to 20 at birth, to 140 to 50 at puberty and again 
to 290 to 61 at maturity. This augmented power of 
the heart results in an increased blood pressure which 

1 Smedley, F. W. : Report of the Department of Child Study, 
Chicago, II, pp. 13-14. 



58 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

is accompanied and followed by growth in bodily 
tissues, the fact of which may be inferred from what 
has already been said, and by the more rapid develop- 
ment in sex and other organs whose complete function- 
ing is characteristic of maturity. The bodily tem- 
perature rises to some extent during this period. It 
would be surprising indeed if this profound physical 
change were unaccompanied by changes in the emo- 
tional life of the child. 

Although more recent thought, instanced by Moll 
and Freud, apprehends that the sex life of the child 
begins years before the first appearance of the ex- 
ternal signs of puberty, there are few who will take 
exception to the statement that there is a pulse of sex 
interest near the time of their appearance. As has 
been stated, these signs do not manifest themselves 
at identical chronological points in the lives of all boys 
or of all girls. As our discussion concerns itself with 
adapting the organization of education to the changing 
nature of the child, the facts as to the percentages of 
boys and girls at each of the several ages who bear 
the signs of oncoming or arrived maturity are perti- 
nent. They are presented here in tabular form. Table 
III, adapted from Crampton, 1 shows that less than a 
fifth of the group of boys at twelve and a fourth years 
of age examined by him bore these signs, that for 
boys at twelve and three-fourths years this proportion 

1 Physiological Age — A Fundamental Principle. 'American 
Physical Education Review, XIII, 150 (1908). 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 59 

was almost a third, etc. Baldwin's data on girls * (see 
Table IV) show much larger percentages at approx- 

TABLE III. PERCENTAGES OF PUBESCENT AND 
POST-PUBESCENT BOYS AT EACH AGE (from 





Cramp ton). 




Age in Years. 




Percentage. 


12.25 




18 


12.75 




3i 


13.25 




44 


13.75 




59 


14.25 




74 


1475 




84 


15.25 




90 


1575 




95 


16.25 




97 


16.75 




99 


17.25 




100 



TABLE IV. PERCENTAGE OF PUBESCENT AND POST- 
PUBESCENT GIRLS AT EACH AGE (from Baldwin). 

Age in Years. Percentage. 

10.5 6.25 

11.0 

1 1.5 21.15 

12.0 3793 

12.5 41.79 

13.0 60.46 

13.5 8483 

14.0 84.61 

14.5 95.i6 

15.0 100.00 

15.5 98.43 

16.0 97.95 

16.5 100.00 

imately comparable ages. The disparity conforms in 
general to what has already been said concerning the 
differences in age of appearance between boys and 

1 Baldwin, B. T. : A Measuring Scale for Physical Growth 
and Physiological Age. Fifteenth Yearbook of the National 
Society for the Study of Education, 1916, Part I, Chap. I. 



60 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

girls of the pronounced increments in height, weight, 
and lung capacity. 

It is when we turn from the physiological to the 
psychological evidences of change in the nature of the 
child at adolescence that we move directly into the 
region of controversy. There can be little doubt that 
such measurements as have been made of the traits 
of childhood indicate no large sudden spurts in mental 
abilities comparable with those found in the realm of 
the physiological. But it must be remembered that 
these measurements have been limited to the more 
tangible processes of sensation, association, memory, 
reasoning, and the like. Because of the restrictions 
upon objective measurement attributable td*the new- 
ness of the application of scientific method in psychol- 
ogy, they have not been concerned with the less tangible 
fields of interests and emotions. It is obviously just 
in the latter fields that we should expect to find the 
most profound psychic mutations of adolescence. 

Another factor tending to detract from belief in 
these psychic changes has been the discrediting of the 
method of investigation by which the evidence pre- 
suming to establish them was collected by G. Stanley 
Hall and his school. It seems to the writer that it 
has been too readily assumed by some that discrediting 
this questionnaire method and denying the fact of pro- 
found change were accomplished by the same stroke 
of criticism. A method may be discredited and the 
phenomena with which it is concerned still exist 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 61 

The dawn of social consciousness which accompanies 
the arrival of sex maturity is so much a matter of 
almost universal observation as to leave little doubt 
in the minds of many thoughtful persons of its estab- 
lishment as a fact. It will be attested to by most in- 
telligent teachers and others who have opportunities to 
compare the natures of groups of adolescents and of 
preadolescents. It is no doubt not to be wholly ac- 
counted for by the mere approach or arrival of sex 
maturity. Few will deny that it could hardly attain 
its pervasive character without the support of other 
social instincts, for example the maternal instinct, gre- 
gariousness, and the desire for approval and " showing 
off." These, like the sex instinct, are more or less 
operative before the period of adolescence. It must 
be encouraged as well by the suggestions of adult 
society, which, of course, find a soil more fertile owing 
to sheer approximation of the youth to adulthood in 
stature and appearance and also by the rapid accumu- 
lation of experiences. Whatever may be the complex 
of causes that are urging the quickening of the social 
consciousness, there can be little doubt of its existence 
in the early adolescent and there can be little ques- 
tion that it is accelerated by the extensive physio- 
logical changes of some of which mention has been 
made. 

Before it is possible to point out the bearing of re- 
organization in education upon the child's nature at 
adolescence, it is essential to know at what point in his 



62 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

school career these changes in his physiological and 
psychological make-up take place. To secure informa- 
tion on this the writer has computed the probable per- 
centages of pubescent and post-pubescent boys and girls 
in the seventh and in the ninth grades. This has been 
done by applying the percentages of boys and girls of 
the several ages who are pubescent or post-pubescent 
as shown in Tables III and IV to the data found in 
the age-grade distributions in a number of city school 
systems. In these computations the proportions of 
such boys in the former grade range from two-fifths 
to one-half of all boys enrolled, while for girls they 
range from three-fifths to seven-tenths. In the ninth 
grade the range is from seven-tenths to four-fifths for 
boys and from six-sevenths to ten-elevenths for girls. 
These figures make clear that, if the period of second- 
ary education is to be coincident with the period of 
adolescence, the four-year high school begins too late 
for almost all boys and girls, and that the plan which 
begins secondary education two years earlier than now 
is better adapted to the incidence of change in nature 
of the child. 

Despite the fact that this change comes rather rapidly 
and powerfully, there is slight justification for making 
sudden changes in school organization aiming at har- 
mony with the nature of the child. This is because the 
change is not cataclysmic in any event, because it does 
not arrive at identical chronological ages for the two 
sexes nor for those of the same sex, and because pupils 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 63 

of the same physiological maturity do not reach the 
seventh grade at the same time. 

Nevertheless, the school reforms calculated to be 
better adapted to the changed nature of the child at 
adolescence must be little short of far-reaching. They 
must include a physical education that takes cognizance 
of the differences in physique between boys and girls 
and of the rapidly increasing strength of the former. 
They may not ignore the opportuneness at this time 
of sex education. They must recognize the fact that 
the pupil, now rapidly approaching maturity, will be- 
come increasingly impatient unless given a meatier 
mental diet than is provided in the conventional school 
- — that his enlarging social consciousness will be better 
satisfied by the materials of a functional education 
rich in social, civic, and vocational interests, than by 
the repetition of the preliminaries of an education. 
Nor can they neglect to provide opportunities of par- 
ticipation in a well-planned and efficiently directed 
social organization of the school that will allow for 
expression of the pupil's social impulses. As most of 
these reforms are next to impossible in the traditional 
organization, we must look to the junior high school 
to bring them and thus to perform the function of 
recognizing the nature of the adolescent child. 

PROVISION OF THE CONDITIONS FOR BETTER TEACHING 

Providing the conditions for better teaching may be 
seen to assume large importance in the minds of those 



64 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

who prepared both groups of statements introduced 
in the tabulations. There is little variation in the 
statements made from references to ( i ) improvement 
of instruction resulting from the specialization on the 
part of teachers which is made possible through depart- 
mentalization of instruction in the junior high school 
and (2) the fact that this reorganization can attract 
to the seventh and eighth grades teachers of more 
extended training than can the elementary school. 
Illustrative quotations from references to the former 
advantage are : " teachers [may be secured] who are 
trained in the subjects they will teach " ;\" the teaching 
is better done, since no teacher is able to teach a half- 
dozen subjects unrelated for the most part as well as 
he can teach subjects of his choice " ; the junior high 
school "permits the teacher to come before his class 
with the enthusiasm and inspiration of a specialist. ,, 
Quotations touching on the latter advantage are: it 
will be " easier to secure high-grade teachers, both men 
and women, than it is to get them for the grades " ; 
" this organization will produce a demand for specially 
qualified teachers." 

The proportion of those giving careful consider- 
ation to the problems of school organization who are 
still hoping to secure effective teaching under the one- 
teacher regimen in the upper grades is rapidly dimin- 
ishing. Even after years of trial of the plan in which 
a single teacher endeavors to give good instruction 
in a wide variety of subjects, we must admit that it 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 65 

is not often that we meet with a teacher of seventh 
or eighth grade who may be said to be effective in all 
the lines which she is called upon to teach. The long 
list of subjects itself is disheartening. We expect 
the same individual teacher to do superior work in 
reading and literature, grammar and composition, 
spelling, history and civics, geography, handwriting, 
arithmetic, music, drawing, physical training, and, not 
infrequently, other subjects. The task has been grow- 
ing more complex and correspondingly more discour- 
aging with the addition of each new subject ever 
since we began to branch out from the original three 
R's. Moreover, school authorities are obliged to re- 
gard themselves as fortunate if they are able to secure 
for this work teachers who have had as much as two 
years of training after high-school graduation. 
i The enrichment of the curriculum has made the 
work of teaching all the subjects in the elementary 
grades so large an undertaking that many systems 
have despaired of making the one-teacher regimen 
suffice and have long since introduced partial or com- 
plete departmentalization into the upper and inter- 
mediate grades — sometimes even in the primary grades. 
There is a tendency to departmentalize more frequently 
in the upper grades than in grades below them, thus 
reflecting the need for superior scholarship in subjects 
in the grades enrolling the more advanced pupils. 

The advantages associated with departmentalization 
and with the better training of the teacher are more 



66 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

likely to come with the junior high school than with 
mere departmentalization of the upper grades, because 
the program of the former is enlarged by the addition 
of subjects for the teaching of which the preparation 
of the usual elementary-school teacher does not at all 
prepare him. Securing teachers with more training 
will be encouraged also by the tradition of the more 
honorific character of teaching in the high school 
which will attach in some part to the junior high 
school. This will be especially operative if the salary 
schedule for the latter approaches that for the former. 
It is certain that reorganization of school systems in 
the smaller communities will bring more highly trained 
teachers, who are specialists in subjects, into the seventh 
and eighth grades, since the teachers in the senior high- 
school grades will teach these subjects in the grades 
of the junior high school. This is an important ground 
for reorganization in smaller communities. 
. An additional consideration argues for the condi- 
tions of better teaching in the junior high school — 
the vertical correlation that will follow departmental- 
ization. Under the present organization the teacher 
of eighth grade is not fully aware of what is being 
taught and what methods are being used in a given 
subject in seventh grade. The teacher in the ninth 
grade is even more ignorant of what has gone forward 
in his related subjects in the eighth grade. Unlike 
this situation will be that in the reorganized school 
where the teacher will often carry his subject through 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 67 

two, three, and, in small communities, more 
years. 

It must be granted that too great confidence may 
easily be placed in departmentalization and more ex- 
tended training as being themselves active in improv- 
ing teaching. The best that may be demanded of them 
is that they provide the conditions under which the 
work of instruction may be given latitude to improve. 
The ultimate test of the realization of better teaching 
will not be whether our teachers have attended school 
longer or are teaching fewer subjects, but whether 
the process and product of instruction are superior to 
what is typical of the traditional organization. Al- 
though at present there is little or no indisputable 
published evidence affirming or denying the improve- 
ment, it is manifest that school authorities rest in the 
assurance that improvement will follow. 

SECURING BETTER SCHOLARSHIP 

A relatively small proportion of those who prepared 
the statements used in the tabulation mention the pos- 
sibility of securing better scholarship on the part of 
the pupil. The hope centers in " study under super- 
vision," " reduction of the number of failures," " the 
elimination of indifference toward the work " pre- 
valent under the traditional organization, and the pur- 
suit of some subjects through a longer period as a 
consequence of the downward extension of the second- 
ary school. 



68 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Judging from the discussion of the peculiar function 
immediately preceding, this expectation of better 
scholarship should hinge to some extent upon the 
tendency of the junior high school to supply the con- 
ditions for better teaching. This inference is one 
merely from cause to effect: provided more effective 
instruction, a superior scholarship must result. 

This expectation has the additional support of the 
fact that supervised study, an increasingly common 
feature of the junior high school, has been found to 
reduce the proportion of failures in high-school classes 
and otherwise to raise the standard of scholarship. 

But advocates of the junior high school contend 
that better scholarship must follow also the changed 
attitudes of the pupil brought by other features of 
reorganization. Among the most important of these 
is the zest that comes from the study of new and more 
vital subjects and materials as contrasted with the 
present widespread indifference of pupils in upper 
grades toward the too frequent spiritless reviews and 
extensions of the fundamentals. This zest is height- 
ened also by the opportunity given in most junior high 
schools for the election of courses in line with pupils' 
interests and attitudes. At the same time the privilege 
of election and other features of reorganization give 
them the sense of being agents in their own education. 

As is the case with some of the other peculiar pur- 
poses whose "justification we are examining, there is 
little scientifically derived evidence that the junior high 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 69 

school is or is not functioning in the respect here under 
consideration. Stetson * has presented a study pur- 
porting to show that the scholarship as measured by 
the scholastic records of students who had attended 
the junior high schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
was scarcely appreciably different from that of students 
who had attended schools having the conventional 
organization of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. 
This was true in junior high-school and senior high- 
school grades and for the records in both English and 
mathematics. But he admits that the curricula in 
these subjects were practically identical for both types 
of school, junior and non- junior. The report of the 
school survey of Grand Rapids gives further evidence 
that the reorganization was far from sufficient to bring 
about much improvement of the sort anticipated when 
it says, " The six-year high school as it is in operation 
in the city to-day is not fully such a school — if by 
the expression is meant . . . not only a change 
in the form of school organization, but also a pretty 
complete modification of the subject-matter to be 
taught, the methods of instruction used, the mode of 
administration employed and the spirit of control and 
direction that dominates!' 2 Surely, little improvement 
in scholarship may be expected without genuine re- 
organization. 

1 Stetson, P. C. : A Statistical Study of the Scholastic Records 
of 404 Junior and Non-Junior High-School Students. School 
Review,, XXV, 617-36, Nov., 1917. 

2 School Survey, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 215. 



70 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Childs x investigated by the use of standard tests 
the ability in certain fundamentals of pupils in the 
eighth grades of reorganized and of conventional 
schools. His data tend to show that, in spite of the 
reduction in the amount of time devoted to these fun- 
damentals in the former, the quality of achievement 
was approximately equal. However, little dependence 
may be placed in the findings of the study owing to 
the small number of pupils and schools included in 
the study and the presence of a number of variable 
factors. Among the latter are the character of the 
training the pupils in grades preceding the eighth and 
the absence of a concept of a standard junior high 
school to which reference has already been made. The 
small amount of assurance that may be had from it 
is in some degree increased by the knowledge that, 
as is shown elsewhere in his study, the junior high 
school tends to hold boys better than does the merely 
departmental organization. Since it is the boys who 
are to a larger extent eliminated in the more nearly 
traditional organization and since the average scholar- 
ship of those eliminated is lower than that of those 
who remain, figures which seem to show approximate 
equality in scholarship in junior and in non- junior 
schools, may actually signify superiority in securing 
better scholarship of the individual pupil. 

What has just been said may justify the belief that, 
if the junior high school ultimately comes to retain 

1 op. cit. y pp. 122-34. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 71 

in school a much larger percentage of the possible 
school population, both boys and girls, as is rather 
generally believed, the central tendencies in scholarship 
will not be found to move upward. This belief has in 
it the support of the fact that elimination has fre- 
quently been shown to have been qualitative, i.e., a 
larger percentage of the poorer than of the better 
students drop out. And while we may be convinced 
that, through better teaching and through the recog- 
nition of individual differences, by means of super- 
vised study, promotion by subject, partially elective 
programs, and other administrative devices, the in- 
dividual pupil will do more satisfactory work, our 
methods of investigating the superiority of the junior 
high school in this regard will need to make certain 
that the groups being studied are really comparable. 

IMPROVING THE DISCIPLINARY SITUATION AND 
SOCIALIZING OPPORTUNITIES 

A large proportion of the statements used in the 
tabulation make mention of one or more ways in 
which the junior high school will improve the dis- 
ciplinary situation and the socializing opportunities. 
This function is recognized in a wide variety of ex- 
pression of which the following are illustrative : " dis- 
cipline is simplified " by having the pupils under the 
control of more than one teacher during the school 
day; this "encourages self-direction " of pupils, as it 
throws upon them a greater extent of responsibility 



72 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

than does the one-teacher regimen; the larger number 
of teachers with whom the child comes in contact, in- 
cluding a larger proportion of men than now found 
in the upper grades, has large social values; other 
social values are derived from the fact that children 
of the ages and grades included tend to make up a 
homogeneous social group for whom there may be 
"better supervision of social and recreative activities " 
than can be provided in the elementary school which 
includes eight grades. 

Here, again, we look in vain for other than em- 
pirical evidence for substantiation of this peculiar func- 
tion. The wide range of affirmation appearing may 
be classed under two main heads, (a) that which 
asserts that the " discipline " of the school, in the 
older and narrower sense of the term, inclines in re- 
organization toward a more nearly frictionless con- 
dition than has been possible under the usual organiza- 
tion, and (b) that which sees in the new plan the 
opportunity to enrich the child's social contacts to an 
extent not to be hoped for in the traditional system. 

The prevalence of friction in attempts to secure, 
even by "good disciplinarians," passable behavior on 
the part of boys and girls in the upper grades of our 
eight-year elementary schools in an organization in 
which one teacher throughout a five- to six-hour school 
day gives instruction to the same group of thirty to 
sixty pupils, is a matter of common knowledge. The 
struggle is often so arduous that there is evidence that 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 73 

sometimes the primary consideration in selecting 
teachers for and assigning them to these grades is the 
ability to police, rather than to instruct. 

The testimony of majority comment is that, although 
the problems of discipline are not entirely eliminated, 
their frequency of emergence is much reduced, by 
the junior school. The improvement comes in part 
from the relief to the pupil in change of rooms and 
of teachers accompanying departmentalization. The 
change of rooms is at least partial recognition of the 
child's impulse for movement now too much sup- 
pressed by our sedentary school regime, while the 
change of teachers indulges to some extent his desire 
for variety. Comparisons of the programs of junior 
high schools and of traditional elementary schools 
show that the former include a more generous por- 
tion of subjects allowing for physical activity than do 
the latter, which often seem to be built on the assump- 
tion that the child is a sessile organism. A significant 
factor in improving disciplinary conditions must be 
the opportunities which reorganization provides for 
gradually shifting the burden of responsibility to the 
pupil himself. The conditions allowing for the shift 
of responsibility are to be inferred in part from the 
foregoing and in part from the mode of administra- 
tion of programs of study which open to the pupil 
some choice in the subjects he is to pursue. This, 
joined with the indirect but far-reaching influence of 
a curriculum made up more largely of activities to 



74 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

the effective performance of which the pupil is mo- 
tivated, gives promise of real disciplinary progress. 

The opportunities for expanding and enriching the 
social contacts of the child are of much more sig- 
nificance to educational progress than is the mere re- 
duction of the total of vexatious behavior. Depart- 
mentalization may be expected to increase the social- 
izing opportunities through bringing the pupil into 
touch with a greater number of teacher-personalities, 
each of whom will bring to him something which a 
single personality can not offer. This value will fur- 
thermore be enhanced by the more extended training 
and the broader social contacts that are more and 
more characteristic of the teacher in the junior high 
school. As this institution also is attracting more 
men teachers than the elementary school is able to draw 
under the most favorable conditions, there is progress 
toward a normal social environment which is too im- 
portant to be ignored. The program of studies, de- 
parting, as it does, in greater or less degree from the 
limits jixed by elementary-school curricula concerned 
too exclusively with developing skill in the fundamen- 
tal processes, moves toward the socialization of the 
materials of instruction. 

Lastly, we have in support of the performance of 
this peculiar function the fact of the approach to 
homogeneity of age of the pupils enrolled in the new 
institution. In this school, when it includes the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, we will ordinarily 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 75 

have a range of age no greater than ten to eighteen 
years, with the extremes seldom represented. In the 
eight-year elementary school the range is often from 
five to seventeen. The development of an esprit de 
corps and the establishment of a relatively self -directed 
social organization with the narrower range of ages 
in the former school may be seen to be emphatically 
more feasible. Under the eight-year elementary-school 
plan it is a very common experience to find social, 
recreational, and athletic organizations limited solely 
to the pupils of the upper grades, evidencing a line of 
cleavage already present. The relative homogeneity 
of the junior high-school group will accelerate the 
growth of this vital phase of school life. Incidentally, 
the removal of the upper grades from the elementary 
schools will leave a more nearly homogeneous group 
in them and offer the opportunities of better develop- 
ment of social, recreative, and athletic activities below 
the seventh grade. Nor should we leave unmentioned 
the advantage to ninth-grade pupils of removal from 
a four-year school in which, because of their im- 
maturity, almost all opportunity along these lines is 
wrested from them by upper-classmen, to a school in 
whose social activities they may more nearly realize 
themselves. At the same time, on account of their 
nearness of age, the pupils of the ninth grade will not 
similarly overshadow those in the grades below them. 
Although among the more intangible values to be 
realized by the junior high school, the improvement 



76 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

of the disciplinary situation and socializing oppor- 
tunities is to be regarded as among the most desirable. 
With proper care in administering the new institution 
we may with certainty anticipate large results of the 
sort described. 

OTHER PECULIAR FUNCTIONS 

Examination of the proportions of the statements 
making mention of other peculiar functions of the 
junior high school, as presented in Table I and Figure 
I, shows clearly that no remaining function comes 
in for anything like the frequent recognition of those 
already discussed. Sometimes this is owing to the 
fact that they are extraneous to the educational pur- 
poses of the school, and, in other instances owing to 
some other cause, as the un justifiability of the 
function. 

Those who make statements that classify under 
the function of financial economy in very few instances 
urge baldly that the total cost of education in the re- 
organized school is less than in the traditional plan. 
More often it is claimed that the cost per pupil is 
reduced through the concentration of pupils of the 
upper grades of elementary schools in large junior high 
schools, or through the better retention of pupils by 
the junior high school. Occasionally it is stated that 
reduction of costs accompanies the more intensive use 
of equipment in departmentalization. 

It has been obvious for some time that the conten- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 77 

Mion that introducing the junior high-school plan into 
a school system effects financial economy is ill-advised. 
It should be clear on a priori grounds that to provide 
satisfactory junior high-school education, with all that 
this implies in elective curricula, better-trained teach- 
ers, expensive plant, and adequate equipment, must 
cost more than to provide the kind of training char- 
acteristic of the upper elementary grades, since all 
items of cost involved will tend to approach those of 
the traditional high school. 

Furthermore, we have statistical evidence that the 
junior high school is more expensive than the grade 
organization. For instance, Rugg showed in the Grand 
Rapids School Survey * that " segregation of the upper 
grades in the so-called intermediate school means a 
very considerable addition to the cost of instruction. 
A semester's instruction in the regularly organized 
eighth grade costs about $12.00 per pupil enrolled. A 
semester's instruction in the eighth grade as organ- 
ized in the intermediate school costs very nearly $20.00. 
A regularly organized seventh grade costs about $11.00 
per semester ; an ' intermediate ' or 'junior high-school " 
seventh grade costs very nearly $18.00 per semester." 
These figures are for instruction only— the largest 
single item of educational cost. Introducing costs 
per pupil for most of the remaining items would prob- 
ably tend to magnify the difference found. Childs, 2 
in the most complete study of costs in junior high 
1 p. 437« 2 op. cit, pp. 103-21. 



78 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

schools which has so far made its appearance, finds 
them to be higher than for other plans of organization. 
The junior high school may mean educational and 
social economy, but financial economy may hardly be 
demanded of it. 

How the establishment of the junior high school 
may bring relief to the building situation is shown 
by the following: "relief will be afforded our over- 
crowded high schools by retaining the ninth-year pupils 
in the intermediate schools " ; " the crowded condition 
in several of the large grammar schools rendered 
prompt action necessary. At least nine additional 
classrooms were needed in different sections of the 
town and with the old high school lying idle and an 
abundance of space available in the new high school, 
to build expensive additions to existing schools did 
not seem sound business policy." From its nature 
we expect this function to arise only out of a local 
situation. While in instances like these the junior 
high school would doubtless bring the relief promised, 
and while it must be conceded that it is justifiable to 
use such an argument to hasten the establishment of 
the plan for its intrinsic values, it must at the same 
time be admitted that this function is, in itself, ex- 
trinsic to the process of education. 

Two of the school documents speak of the oppor- 
tunity which the junior high school gives of continuing 
the influence of the home: the proximity of the junior 
high school to the home " aided the parents in watch- 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 79 

ing carefully over the moral development of the 
pupils . . ."; "it will make it possible for students 
to get a high-school education near their . . . homes 
at a time when they need to be under parental in- 
fluence." These statements emanate from cities in 
which the junior high schools are nearer the homes 
than is the senior high-school building to which ninth- 
grade pupils would be required to go, were not the 
reorganized plan in operation. There is no doubt 
that these communities could be matched by others 
in which those advocating the junior high school would 
meet opposition on the ground that many children in 
the seventh and eighth grades must attend a junior 
high school more remote for them than the elementary 
school which they would attend in the absence of re- 
organization. 

There can be little doubt that the coming of the 
junior high school in a system will hasten reform in 
the grades above and below those included in this in- 
stitution. A thoroughgoing acceptance in practice of 
the principles around which the junior high school 
is organized will bring a demand for the application 
of those which are appropriate to other parts of the 
system. Curricular and other adjustments in two 
or three years of a school system must be reflected in 
the years above and below. But, however pervasive 
the resulting reform may be, it must be regarded more 
as a by-product than as one of the major peculiar func- 
tions of this school. 



80 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

A few of those whose statements have been used 
for the figures in Table I say that the junior high 
school tends to normalize the size of classes. It does 
this through the concentration of pupils otherwise 
distributed to several elementary schools. It is in- 
evitable that under the traditional plan some of the 
schools will have upper-grade classes too small or too 
large to be cared for in the most efficient manner. 
The junior high school, through handling larger num- 
bers, can break them into groups more nearly of 
standard size, thereby avoiding on the one hand the 
expensive small class and the inefficiency of congestion 
on the other. This function must, however, be re- 
garded as more local than universal. 

Lastly, a few educational leaders see in the junior 
high-school plan an opportunity of bringing relief to 
teachers. This relief, they say, is one of the benefits 
of departmentalization, which requires less total prep- 
aration for the work presented each day. The con- 
scientious teacher will be more nearly able during his 
working day under the conditions of partial or com- 
plete departmentalization to make such preparation for 
his classes as will aid him in coming before them with 
the assurance of his adequacy to the task at hand. 
This, coupled with the additional relief from discip- 
linary pressure required to control the same class group 
for five or six hours each school day throughout a 
semester or year, will lessen appreciably the drain 
on the teacher's reservoir of nervous energy. The 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 81 

testimony of teachers who have worked under both 
systems is strongly in support of this expectation. 
Despite the desirability of this result of reorganization, 
because it is not one of the functions of the junior 
high school which concerns directly the education of 
the child — and it is for this purpose and not for the 
teachers that we have schools — , it will not be in- 
cluded in the working list of peculiar functions to 
be used in testing the junior high school. 

THE LEGITIMATE EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF THE 
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

In this chapter we have taken occasion to scrutinize, 
as best we may in brief and with the limitations of the 
present state of our knowledge of the institution, each 
of the peculiar functions of the junior high school 
posited by those who have been among the first to 
express themselves concerning its purposes or to at- 
tempt to realize them in practice. This examination 
seems to the writer to lead to the conclusion — to be 
held only until better light is available for re- 
evaluation — that the peculiar functions which may 
be regarded as legitimate are those named in our table 
and figure which are seen to have been more fre- 
quently proposed than others, specifically those ap- 
pearing under I-V. 

Although there is an absence of unquestionable evi- 
dence that the junior high schools are at present hold- 
ing pupils better than does the conventional school 



82 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

organization, there is basis for confidence that (i) 
thoroughgoing reorganization will remove many of 
the causes of elimination that lie within and even to 
some extent those that lie without the school. 
Through shortening the period now devoted to the 
tool subjects by elimination of non-essentials, and their 
more effective presentation by methods scientifically 
selected, through utilizing the saving thus made for 
subjects having greater functional possibilities, and 
through moving each pupil at a rate appropriate to 
him, (2) the junior high school may be expected to 
effect a genuine and appreciable economy qf time. It 
is also much better adapted than is the ^traditional 
organization to (3) recognition of and (4) explora- 
tion for variation > in abilities and interests of pupils. 
The accomplishment of the purpose of exploration for 
guidance through giving the pupil a wide array of 
vocational experiences will constitute at least (5) a 
beginning of vocational education for those whose 
school careers must be interrupted before or near the 
close of the junior high-school period. To be just to 
certain groups of pupils, especially the over-age, it 
may be necessary and advisable in some localities to 
supplement this meager beginning by special vocational 
training to be provided within this period. By achiev- 
ing these five peculiar purposes long strides will be 
taken toward the performance of that larger function, 
democratizing the American public school system. 
The junior high school can also (6) better recognize 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 83 

than can the traditional plan the important changes 
taking place in the child's nature at adolescence. It 
will (7) provide the conditions allowing for improve- 
ment of teaching. As a consequence of this better 
teaching and other influences for motivation an im- 
proved application of the pupil will result, which (8) 
will bring for the individual, if not for the school, a 
higher standard of scholarship. This superior appli- 
cation, joined with other agencies, (9) will bring a 
better disciplinary situation and, with still other re- 
forms which accompany the junior high school, 
enlarge the socializing opportunities of the school. 

Consideration of the working list of peculiar func- 
tions of the junior high school should not be concluded 
without the admission that they are not discrete pur- 
poses, but are, instead, much intervolved. Realizing 
one of them will often mean partially realizing several 
others. A few of these relationships have already 
been pointed out in foregoing pages. Other instances 
of such interrelation are the tendency to retain pupils 
following the recognition of individual differences, the 
economy of time resulting from the improvement of 
teaching, or the bettered disciplinary situation accom- 
panying the recognition of the nature of the child. 

These functions are to be regarded as peculiar to 
the junior high school in one or both of two senses, 
(a) as contrasted with those of the traditional organi- 
zation of the grades it includes, and (b) as contrasted 
with the purposes to be achieved in the reformed school 



84 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

in the grades above and below, in the former sense 
each of the functions is peculiar to the junior high 
school, since the present organization is not designed 
to encourage their performance. In the second sense 
few of the functions are exclusively distinctive of this 
new institution. For instance, it is obvious that time 
must be economized, individual differences recognized, 
better teaching provided, and disciplinary situations 
and socializing opportunities improved, not only in the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, but in grades above 
and below those under consideration as well. 

On the other hand, many, if not most, of the func- 
tions in this working list possess some measure of 
peculiarity as contrasted with the grades above and 
below. For example, retaining pupils is peculiarly ap- 
propriate, since it is between the sixth and tenth grades 
that the bulk of elimination from school takes place; 
although differences should be recognized and capaci- 
ties and interests explored in other grades, we must do 
it here, if nowhere else in the system; from what has 
been said in the foregoing pages, this time is also espe- 
cially appropriate for the provision of the beginnings 
of vocational education; and there is but one time in 
his life when the individual is adolescent and when the 
means of education must be peculiarly adapted to the 
changes then taking place within him. 



FUNCTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 85 

THE RELATIONSHIP OF PECULIAR FUNCTIONS TO 
ULTIMATE AIMS 

At the opening of the present chapter it was stated 
that the test of an educational institution is the extent 
to which it realizes the ultimate aims of education and 
that the junior high school, to justify itself, must make 
its contributions to the achievement of this common 
function of all schools. The intervening pages have 
been devoted to an endeavor to establish the valid pe- 
culiar functions of this new institution, the relationship 
of the achievement of which to the realization of the 
ultimate aims of education is that of facilitation. The 
performance of these peculiar functions makes the 
realization of the ultimate aims more readily possible. 
This relationship is so patent that only the briefest 
illustration is necessary for confirmation: without 
better retention we may not hope to accomplish as well 
our ultimate purposes, a proper economy of time must 
hasten their realization, a recognition of individual 
differences will guarantee their' better approximation, 
etc. Thus, the junior high school must meet not only 
the test applied to every educational institution, but 
also the test of achieving its peculiar functions as a 
distinctive institution. How it should be organized 
and administered to accomplish these special purposes 
will be our next concern. 



1 

III 

THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 

THE FEATURES OF THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

If the test of the junior high school as a distinctive 
institution is the extent of its performance of its pe- 
culiar functions, the test of its organization must be 
the adaptation of the features of this organization to 
such performance. All the essential features must be 
provided and they must be administered in a way de- 
signed to achieve the desired results. 

A canvass of the administrative make-up of the 
junior high schools of the country shows a wide 
variety of combination of features of organization. ffffc 
fairly complete catalogue of what seem to be the most 
significant of the features of reorganization found are 
the following: (i) the grades included, (2) the ad- 
mission requirements, (3) the program of studies, (4) 
the distribution of work to teachers, usually by a 
greater or less extent of departmentalization, (5) the 
plan of promotion, more commonly by subject, (6) 
the methods of instruction, (7) the advisory system, 
inclusive of the disciplinary organization, (8) the im- 
provement in the instructional and supervisory staff, 

86 



THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 87 

(9) the social organization, (10) the housing, and 
(11) the equipment. 

In an attempt to clarify thought on the junior high 
school, particularly as to the relationship of its fea- 
tures to the performance of its functions, Figure 7 
has been devised. It includes in its left-hand column 
the working list of peculiar functions established in the 
preceding chapter and, in the upper horizontal row, 
the list of features just named. By the aid of this dia- 
gram attention may be more directly focussed upon the 
question of the bearing of the presence in the junior 
high school of each feature upon the likelihood of per- 
formance of each function or upon the sort of varia- 
tion of each feature best calculated to perform each 
function. 

In the figure the squares formed by the intersections 
of the columns and rows are cross-hatched, single- 
hatched, or in outline, depending upon what seems to 
be the degree of importance of a feature under con- 
sideration, or of a particular variation of it, to the 
realization of a function. Cross-hatching has been 
used to indicate what seems to be a relationship em- 
phatically important; shaded, important; and in out- 
line, of little or no importance. For example, the fea- 
ture of departmentalization is judged to be of great 
importance in exploration for guidance, vocational 
education, providing conditions for better teaching, 
and improving the disciplinary situation and socializ- 
ing opportunities of the school, and it is important for 



88 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



Peoullar Funotiona 

of the 
Junior High Sohool 




A. Retention of Puplla 



B. Economy of Time 



C. Recognition of Indi- 
vidual Differencea 



D. Exploration for 
Guidance 



E. Vocational Education 



II. Recognizing the Nature or the 
Child 



III. Providing Conditions for 
Better Teaching 



IV. Securing Better Scholar- 
ship 



V. Improving the Disciplinary Situ- 
ation and Socializing Opportunl* 

Haa 



FIGURE 7. 

The Relationship Between the Features of the Junior High 
School and the Performance of Its Functions (Cross-hatching 
indicates that a feature or some modification of it is highly im- 
portant in the performance of a function ; single-hatching, 
important; in outline, of little or no importance). 

retention of pupils, economy of time, recognition of 
individual differences and the nature of the child, and 
securing better scholarship. These are, of course, only- 
opinions, based upon such considerations as it has been 
possible to muster with the limited knowledge of the 
junior high school now available. They do not depend 
upon a full array of scientifically assembled materials. 
These it will take years and even decades to accumu- 
late. But it illustrates the method of thought which 
must be pursued to defend the exclusion of a feature 
or a particular variation of a feature from the junior 



THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 89 

high-school plan or the inclusion of one in it, or to 
choose between two or more variations of the same 
feature. 

It requires but cursory thought upon the relation- 
ships between features and functions to force the con- 
viction that the provision of only a few of the former, 
as is the common practice, cannot be expected to per- 
form adequately all the purposes of the junior high 
school. This must be true no matter how important 
each of them in itself may be. Application of this 
test of the organization, as those in touch with actual 
practices in self-styled junior high schools must con- 
cede, will find but few of these new institutions 
equipped with the machinery for even as much as 
measurably accomplishing their large special purposes. 

The remaining paragraphs of the present chapter 
will be devoted to illustrating the relationship of the 
features to the achievement of the functions by a brief 
discussion of the first two features named in Figure 
7, (1) the grades to be included in and (2) the re- 
quirements for admission to the junior high school. 
The subjection of other features to the test of the 
likelihood of their performance of the peculiar func- 
tions is left for succeeding chapters. 

THE GRADES TO BE INCLUDED IN THE JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOL 

There are many variations as to the grades included. 
The more common practices are for the junior high 



go THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

school to be comprised, in the usual twelve-year sys- 
tems, of the seventh and eighth, or of the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth grades. Douglass' figures 1 show 
almost equal numbers following both practices, with a 
slight preponderance of the former. Childs* figures 
for Indiana 2 show a great preponderance of the latter. 
Data assembled by the writer from 49 unselected in- 
stitutions give 16 as comprised of the two grades and 
28 of the three grades (with 5 following other prac- 
tices). There is also evidence that many of those who 
include only the two grades regard this as a temporary 
arrangement and plan in the course of time to add the 
ninth grade. Other practices as to the grade of be- 
ginning the junior high school are to be found, as 
the sixth or eighth. Other practices as to the number 1 
of grades included appear, as one or four. But these 
practices are much less frequent than are those already 
mentioned. 

The beginning grade.- ^-Questions of the sort here 
involved, however, may not be properly decided by 
mere weight of practice. They must be settled on the 
ground of the better performance of the peculiar func- 
tions by one of the several variations in use or possible. 
If the new organization is to be designed to hold pupils 



better, it must begin at a point near the time when 
pupils are starting to drop out in large numbers. This 
we have seen to be between the sixth and seventh 
grades. If we are" to economize time in a democratic 

1 op cit., p. 88. * op cit. t p. 69. 



THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 91 

manner, we must do so for those who will not remain 
in school beyond the eighth or ninth grade, and it is 
therefore urgent to begin the new school at a point 
no later than the seventh grade. Neither can we post- 
pone to a grade beyond the seventh the provision of 
enlarged opportunities for recognition of individual 
differences, exploration for guidance, and the begin- 
nings of vocational education particularly imperative 
for children of the age w T hen they are beginning to 
sever their connections with the school. From the 
facts cited in the preceding chapter on the percentages 
of boys and girls in the seventh grade who are pubes- 
cent or post-pubescent, it is apparent that the changes 
in school organization adapted to the changes coming 
at adolescence should not be delayed to a point beyond 
this grade. Were it not for conflicting needs, such as 
the continuation of intensive training in the funda- 
mental processes or the objection to sending children 
so young to schools as remote from their homes as 
will be many of the junior high schools, it might be 
appropriate to include the sixth grade. This would be 
especially true for girls, because of their earlier arrival 
at sex maturity. Lastly, owing to the pupils' rapid 
approach to the time when they will take their places 
in adult society — hastened, of course, by the physical 
and psychic changes of adolescence — the enlarged so- 
cializing opportunities may well find a place earlier 
than is now common. 

The number of grades. — But the issue arising from 



92 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

variation in practice does not emanate as much from 
the point of beginning, on which there is an approach 
to unanimity of opinion, as it does from the number of 
grades to be included. It is often stated that the sys- 
tem with the three-year junior high school may be 
expected to hold many children in school one year 
longer than will the system with the junior high school 
including only the seventh and eighth grades. Some 
advantage is to be anticipated from such a bridging of 
the gap in external organization. The three-year or- 
ganization has been sometimes urged also because the 
longer period is better adapted to reducing for the 
brighter pupils the period of secondary education. 

There are those who see in the two-year unit a 
better opportunity for adapting education to the voca- 
tional needs of pupils. They insist that the gradation 
of occupations as to the amount of training required 
for entrance is not by steps as far apart as three 
years, and that the three-year unit will therefore be 
administratively more unwieldy. It is occasionally 
suggested that we should carry the two-year-unit plan 
into the four-year high school by breaking the latter 
into two similar units. This will provide, with the 
tendency to two-year units observable in higher insti- 
tutions, a series of two-year steps from the sixth grade 
to the professional school. 

The two-year junior high school thus has a strong 
administrative argument in its favor. It is manifest, 
however, that it is applicable only to our largest sys- 



THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 93 

terns and not to cities of moderate size and smaller; 
that it would add to, rather than subtract from, the 
problems of articulation between schools, and that it 
is not as well suited as is the three-year unit to the 
present tendency of laws on compulsory education to 
require attendance in regular day schools up to the 
age of sixteen years. 

There is nothing in the nature of the child which 
recommends either the eighth or the ninth grade as 
the end of the junior high-school period. But it may 
be significant enough to mention that the opportunities 
for socialization of the ninth-grade pupils will be better 
in the junior than in the four-year high school, because 
pupils of this grade are usually so much outdone by 
the upper-classmen that their opportunities for growth 
along these lines are few. On the other hand, as has 
already been pointed out, they are not so much more 
mature than children of the seventh grade that they 
will in turn overshadow the latter. The three-three 
plan should better conduce to homogeneity of the 
groups than the two-four plan. 

To those who find in the two-year junior high 
school the advantage that it will tend to disrupt the 
present organization less than will the three-year unit 
the advocates of the latter respond that one of the 
valuable by-products of the three-year plan is, that it 
does break in upon traditions and inspires reform. It 
will cause more fundamental reorganization. 

The opportunism in the argument that the three- 



94 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

year high school relieves a local building situation has 
been alluded to in the preceding chapter. 

All the facts for the solution of the problem of the 
grades to be included in the junior high school are not 
yet at hand. Years will elapse before educational 
science and experience will give us the answer we 
need. But, surveyed from the point of view of the 
functions to be performed, the balance of judgment 
seems to be in favor of the three-year junior high 
school beginning with the seventh grade, rather than 
the two-year school. ' The plans which begin with the 
eighth grade or include but a single year have little 
more than the argument of temporization in their sup- 
port. 

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS 

The trend of thought in respect to admission to the 
junior high school is well illustrated by the following 
excerpt from a report adopted by the North Central 
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools : 

" The commission recommends that the admission of 
pupils into the junior high school shall be determined on 
the basis of maturity, and the ability of the pupil to profit 
by the junior high-school work offered, rather than by 
completion of the sixth grade solely. Therefore, 

"(i) All pupils who have completed the first six 

grades of the elementary school should be promoted 

to the junior high school. 

"(2) All mentally normal but retarded pupils should 

be transferred to the junior high school at least one 

full year before the legal age for leaving school. For 



THE TEST OF THE ORGANIZATION 95 

many of these, special educational provision must be 
made. 

"(3) Other children should be admitted who have 
shown ability, even though they have not completed the 
sixth grade." 1 

Investigation of practices shows that they lag con- 
siderably behind this expression of what the require- 
ments for admission should be. Often only those 
pupils who have completed all the work of the pre- 
ceding six grades in a satisfactory manner are received 
into the junior high school. 

The urgency of following some such practice as is 
suggested in this quotation is apparent after a brief 
consideration of the relationship of that practice to the 
realization of the peculiar functions. It will retain 
many pupils in school who would otherwise be elimi- 
nated, as they will avoid the distaste of being asso- 
ciated with pupils much younger than they, and will 
do some work which will seem more vital to them 
than the deadening repetition of the materials of a 
preliminary education whose value they cannot see. 
It will mean a saving of time for them, since they do 
not require almost exclusive training in the tools of 
education as much as contact with the materials of a 
more functional education. This need gains emphasis 
when we recall that many of them will soon no longer 
be in school and that they already have some skill in 

1 Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the 
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 
Chicago, pp. 23-24. 



96 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

the use of these tools. Such promotion is for them 
a recognition of individual differences. If they are 
not admitted to the junior high school, they must often 
end their educational careers without the opportunities 
of exploration or the beginnings of vocational edu- 
cation. It is also a recognition of the nature of the 
child, since there is a high correlation between chrono- 
logical and physiological age. The admission of such 
pupils will not tend to raise the average scholarship of 
the school which they enter, but it will be helpful in 
effecting a change of attitude toward school activities 
which should result in better work on the part of the 
individual pupils concerned. As regards this group of 
pupils, also, the disciplinary situation and socializing 
opportunities will be improved. Their discontent with 
being taught in grades with and handled by methods 
appropriate to children much younger all too com- 
monly erupts as a trying disciplinary problem. 



IV 

THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES "^ 

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES IN THE 
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The far-reaching significance of the program of 
studies of the junior high school for genuine reorgani- 
zation is conceded by everyone who has followed the 
current of educational thought concerning this new 
institution. By many it is given first importance in the 
list of features of reorganization. The tendency so to 
regard it may be illustrated by reference to the tabu- 
lated opinions of " twenty-five Indiana school men ac- 
tively engaged in the reorganization movement" as to 
which of eighteen " factors " were by them believed to 
be of greatest importance in the junior high-school 
organization. 1 These men had been requested to num- 
ber the " factors " in the order of importance. *The 
tabulation gives the first four ranks to ( i ) the " re- 
organized courses of study," (2) the " opportunity 
for pupils to take more extensive offerings in prevoca- 
tional subjects," (3) the "provision for greater dif- 
ferentiation of curricula than under the old condi- 
tions," and (4) " opportunities for some pupils to 
take some subjects of the high school earlier, as for- 

1 Childs, op cit., pp. 12-13. 

97 



98 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

eign languages or algebra." The fact that all of these 
are curricular features may be seen to reflect the pre- 
vailing conviction of the extensive bearing of curricu- 
lar progress upon educational reform through the 
junior high school. 

I. THE SINGLE-CURRICULUM TYPE OF PROGRAM 
OF STUDY 

A canvass of the programs of study in operation in 
a large number of junior high schools shows that they 
tend to group into three main forms which we may 
designate as the single-curriculum, the multiple-cur- 
riculum, and the constants-wifh-variables types. The 
group to which a program belongs is usually readily 
discernible; it is only occasionally that it is difficult 
to determine which of two types it more nearly re- 
sembles. 

The first of the types named, the single-curriculum, 
provided in a large proportion of schools, may be 
illustrated by the following program offered in a two- 
year junior high school: 

Seventh Grade Eighth Grade 

Periods Periods 

Subject. Per Week. Subject. Per Week. 

English 5 English 5 

U. S. History and Civics.. 5 U. S. History and Civics.. 5 

Arithmetic 5 Arithmetic 5 

Geography „ 3 Physiology and Hygiene. .. 3 

Manual Training or Sewing 2 Manual Training or Cook- 
ing 2 

Music Vi Music % 

Penmanship and Spelling. . y 2 Penmanship and Spelling. . y 2 

Drawing 1 Drawing 1 

Physical Training , . , , 1 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 99 

According to this program, all pupils take identical 
work, except that the boys have manual training while 
girls take sewing in seventh grade and cooking in 
eighth. 

In this instance the content of the subjects listed is 
that usually found in these grades. It is manifest, 
therefore, that such a curriculum is only slightly better 
designed to achieve the peculiar functions of reorgani- 
zation than the most conservative elementary-school 
curricula for upper grades and no whit better than the 
more progressive. It does little more toward retention 
and practically nothing to economize time. Its only 
recognition of individual differences is to be found 
in the manual training for boys and sewing and cook- 
ing for girls. The opportunities for exploration are 
likewise restricted and there is small provision for 
" general " vocational education. The advantage over 
the traditional curriculum for the recognition of the 
nature of the child, for securing better scholarship, 
and for improving the disciplinary situation and so- 
cializing opportunities is inconsiderable. In brief, the 
attainment of the ultimate aims of education, which 
the achievement of the peculiar functions is expected to 
accelerate, is hardly better encouraged by this program 
than by the usual elementary-school program. The 
only purpose that is likely to be adequately accom- 
plished is the one most characteristic of the elemen- 
tary school, viz., training in the fundamental proc- 



ioo THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

esses. Thus, as far as concerns the program only, 
there is almost no defense for effecting reorganization 
in the school system in which this program is of- 
fered. Reform in content of the subjects listed 
would somewhat enlarge the opportunities to achieve 
the other purposes, but not enough to justify the 
type. 

There are many programs of this type in the junior 
high schools of the country/ some of them even more 
conservatively organized. Their ineptitude to the pur- 
poses of reform in education is so conspicuous as to 
make further demonstration unnecessary. The only 
excuse for them will need to rest in their being a part 
of a first step toward reorganization in which several 
other significant features are simultaneously intro- 
duced. Even under such conditions, the name junior 
high school seems inapplicable. 



2. THE MULTIPLE-CURRICULUM TYPE 

The second type of program of studies, found by 
the writer to be in use in more than a fourth of a 
large number of unselected junior high schools, in- 
cludes those providing two or more curricula to be 
pursued by as many groups of pupils. It may be illus- 
trated by quotation from the curricula for the eighth 
grade in a three-year junior high school : 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 101 

EIGHTH GRADE 

Academic Commercial 

English English 

History and Geography History and Geography 

Science Science 

Physical Training Physical Training 

Algebra Arithmetic 

Latin or Typewriting 

French Bookkeeping 

Home Economics Manual Arts 

English English 

History and Geography History and Geography 

Science Science 

Physical Training Physical Training 

Algebra or Arithmetic Algebra or Arithmetic 

Sewing or Woodwork 

Cooking Drawing 
Interior Decoration 

The work for seventh and ninth grades is similarly 
distributed, except that in the former the work is to 
a larger extent identical in each of the curricula. 

The number of curricula offered by schools in which 
this type is in use varies. In an examination of a 
large number of its representatives one may find a 
few providing but two curricula, e.g., the "general 
course " and the " practical-arts course." Five, six, 
or even more are found in use in some communities. 
For example, one may meet with a program listing 
curricula as follows: classical, academic, commercial, 
mechanic arts for boys, and domestic arts for girls; 
or again: literary-scientific, commercial, home eco- 
nomics, mechanic arts, engineering preparatory, and 
general elective. 

The eighth-grade curricula cited demonstrate a char- 
acteristic common to almost all of the programs of 



102 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

this type — they contain certain constant subjects and 
certain subjects peculiar to each curriculum. In the 
illustration, English, history and geography, science, 
and physical training are the constants, while algebra 
and Latin or French are peculiar to the academic 
curriculum; arithmetic, typewriting and bookkeeping 
to the commercial; algebra or arithmetic, sewing or 
cooking and interior decoration to the home-economics 
curriculum. The constants are sometimes taught with 
application to specializations suggested by the name 
given the curriculum. More often they are not. 

This type of curriculum may not be intelligently 
evaluated without special recognition of the important 
implication that a pupil's enrollment in any one of the 
curricula is evidence that, in accordance with some de- 
cision either his own or of those guiding him, he is to 
enter an occupation within the field comprehended or 
suggested by that curriculum. This inference has the 
support of expressions such as the following occasion- 
ally to be found in literature descriptive of junior 
high-school programs of this type : 

" General Course " 

" For those going to high school and to enter classical 
and scientific courses. Also for those who desire to pre- 
pare to enter colleges and universities for a professional 
career. . . ." 

"Commercial Course " 

" For those who desire to qualify as soon as possible 
as candidates for positions in the commercial and business 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 103 

world or clerical service, typewriting, stenography, book- 
keeping and the selling trades. This course may be com- 
pleted in two years or continued in the high school with 
profit." 

" Vocational Course " 

" For those who desire to begin the study of the funda- 
mental requirements of the various manufacturing and 
mechanical trades and professions. The immediate prac- 
tical knowledge, necessary for success in life will be em- 
phasized in proportion to the number of years available 
for classroom study. . . . All students who have a limited 
amount of time for study and do not anticipate a high- 
school or college-preparatory course should enroll in this 



Despite the brief description of this type of program, 
its superiority over the preceding type in realizing the 
peculiar functions of the junior high school is at once 
manifest. At most points where the single-curriculum 
offering is inadequate, the type now being considered 
is pregnant with promise of fulfilment. In compari- 
son with the traditional curriculum of the upper grades 
we may with assurance expect it to hold pupils in 
school better. The presence of subjects not found in 
the traditional upper grade program presages economy 
of time. For similar reasons it seems better adapted 
to recognizing the child's nature, to motivating him to 
effort that will result in his doing a better grade of 
work, and to improving for him the disciplinary situa- 
tion and extending his socializing opportunities. , It 
also has advantages along the lines of the beginnings 



104 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

of vocational education and, through its different cur- 
ricula, of recognizing individual differences. 

But, with all its advantages over present-day upper- 
grade curricula and over the single-curriculum type of 
program, it harbors a danger too grave to be passed 
without challenge. This danger lies in its failure to 
provide ample opportunity for exploration and in what 
seems to be the assumption that this period in the 
pupils' school careers is one in which they have already 
fixed upon the general vocational groups, if not the 
specializations, which they will enter. This assump- 
tion may be true of some pupils, especially the over- 
age, but the ephemeral character of the occupational 
choices of the young children and the impossibility of 
thus early assuring a satisfactory exploration of and 
by the pupils brands this type of program as not fully 
appropriate. 

Its advocates contend, on the other hand, that, as 
administered, the pupil may usually without penalty 
shift from one curriculum to another, and often does 
so. They suggest further that the dangers are largely 
mitigated by the provision in some plans of elective 
subjects in addition to those prescribed in the cur- 
ricula. But, in spite of the fact that choice of cur- 
riculum may not be irrevocable, the presumption is 
against the facility of transfer from one to another 
There is likelihood, also, that too frequent changes will 
become irksome to those administering the program. 
The provision of additional electives is evidence that 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 105 

the plan has already proved inadequate and that it 
breaks down in application because it is impossible to 
multiply curricula sufficiently to recognize all the in- 
dividual differences in abilities and interests to be 
found in a group of pupils enrolled in seventh, eighth, 
and ninth grades. 

We must find a type of program more in harmony 
with our desire for a democratic school system and 
defer the type we have been discussing, if it must be 
used, to the senior high-school grades from which it 
has been borrowed and where differentiation is more 
suitable after the function of exploration has been 
performed. 

3. THE CONSTANTS-WITH-VARIABLES TYPE 

The third form of program of studies, which we 
have termed the constants-with- variables type, is in use 
in an increasing proportion of junior high schools. 
The illustration of this type given here is drawn from 
a reorganized system in a middle-western state : 

SEVENTH GRADE 

Required Subjects (25 periods) Elective Subjects (5 periods) 
Periods Periods 

Per Week. Per Week. 

English 5 Latin 5 

Arithmetic 5 French 5 

History 5 English Composition 5 

Physical Education 3 Industrial Arts 5 

Industrial or Household Household Arts 5 

Arts 3 Agriculture 5 

Music 2 Commercial Work 5 

Drawing 2 Orchestra 2 



106 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

EIGHTH GRADE 
Required Subjects (20 periods) * Elective Subjects (10 periods) 



Periods 
Per Week. 

English 5 

Arithmetic . 5 

Geography, Civics 5 

Physical Education 3 

Chorus or Drawing 2 



Periods 
Per Week. 

Latin 5 

French 5 

English Composition. 5 

Industrial Arts 5 or 10 

Household Arts 5 or 10 

Agriculture 5 or 10 

Commercial Work. . . 5 or 10 
Drawing and Design. 5 

Music 5 

Orchestra 2 



NINTH GRADE 

Required Subjects (15 periods) Elective Subjects (15 periods) 
Periods Periods 

Per Week. Per Week. 

English 5 Latin fT 

General Science 5 French 5 

Physical Education . . 3 Industrial Arts 5 or 10 

Chorus or Drawing.. 2 Household Arts ..... 5 or 10 

Agriculture 5 or 10 

Commercial Work... 5 or 10 

Drawing and Design. 5 

Music 5 

Mathematics : 

Algebra 5 

Commercial Arith- 
metic 5 

Industrial Arith- 
metic 5 

Civics 5 

History 5 

Orchestra 2 



According to the plan of organization of this type 
of program there are certain constant subjects pursued 
by each pupil enrolled in a grade and certain variable 
subjects from which he, with the co-operation of those 
guiding him, selects enough work to make for him a 
full curriculum. It is like the multiple-curriculum type 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 107 

in its requirements of constants. It is different in that, 
instead of adding fixed subjects peculiar to each cur- 
riculum in the program, it allows for much greater 
variety of curricular make-up, permitting the pupil to 
come in contact with a wider range of variable sub- 
jects. A basic assumption in framing it is that the 
pupil may not, by the time he enters upon the work of 
these grades, have made a permanent occupational 
choice. 

Careful scrutiny of this type of program will dis- 
cover that it has all the advantages in the realization of 
the peculiar functions possessed by the multiple-cur- 
riculum program, and more. It _wjll retain pupils, 
economize time, provide the beginnings of vocational 
education, recognize the child's nature, encourage 
better scholarship on the part of the individual pupil, 
and improve the disciplinary situation and socializing 
opportunities just as well or even better than does the 
second type. At the same time it remedies the serious 
deficiency of the latter by making possible the perform- 
ance of the function of exploration for guidance } a 
function too important to be disregarded at this time 
in the child's school life. In addition it will tend to 
recognize individual differences more satisfactorily by 
permitting a much wider variation of combinations of 
subjects in the making of curricula. 

Its only deficiency when compared with the multiple- 
curriculum program is its greater difficulty of admin- 
istration. Because in the constants-with-variables type 



io8 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

of program the curricula of pupils for each semester 
or each year are not as predictable as in the second 
type, more time and effort must be given to advising 
with pupils concerning their curricular plans. The 
problem of making daily and weekly programs also 
becomes more intricate. However, in questions where 
the two are involved, educational needs must take 
precedence over administrative convenience, especially 
where the former has such vital contact with the reali- 
zation of a democratic school system as is here in- 
volved. 

The use of this third type of program does not 
preclude the desirability of mapping out, especially for 
the over-age or others who may have discriminatingly 
come to a decision upon a line of specialization which 
is to be begun, suggestive curricula adapted to the at- 
tainment of the ends the pupils have in mind. Such 
curricula will be found helpful in advising pupils and 
parents regarding work to be taken. 

THE CONSTANTS AND VARIABLES IN THE PROGRAM 

Having selected the type of program of studies ap- 
propriate to the junior high school, our next con- 
cern must be the determination of the constants and 
variables in the array of subjects. These must be 
chosen in such a way that the program will qualify on 
the tests already posited, viz., the accomplishment of 
the ultimate aims of education, of the proximate aim 
of training in the command of the fundamental proc- 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 109 

esses, and of the peculiar functions of the junior high 
school. 

Constant subjects. — In order to objectify the dis- 
cussion, a list of the constants that should find a place 
in a three-year junior high-school program is first 
presented : 

SEVENTH GRADE 

Periods 
per week. 

English 5 

Social Studies 5 

Physical Education 3 

Music and Graphic and Related Art 2 

Mathematics 5 

Industrial or Home Arts 5 

25 

EIGHTH GRADE 

Periods 
per week. 

English 5 

Social Studies 5 

Physical Education 2 

General Science : 3 

Mathematics S 

20 

NINTH GRADE 

Periods 
per week. 

English 5 

Social Studies 5 

Physical Education 3 

Music or Graphic and Related Art 2 

15 



In the program of which these subjects constitute the 
requirements a school week of at least thirty 50- or 
60-minute periods (exclusive of assembly) is assumed, 



no THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

thus leaving five, ten, and fifteen periods for variables 
for the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, respectively. 
The periods per week assigned to each of the several 
constants and sometimes their place in any year are 
not presumed to be final as much as they are sug- 
gestive. 

It must be admitted that, in the matter of the de- 
sirability of making any subject a. requirement, much 
must depend upon the material and method. What the 
author has in mind for each of the subjects is roughly 
sketched in later portions of this chapter, where the 
reader must seek at least partial justification for the 
inclusion or exclusion of any subject. 

As we should expect to achieve our aims in educa- 
tion — which are the focal points of our educational 
philosophy — largely through an effectively presented 
curriculum, we must find in them the guidance neces- 
sary for deciding upon the kinds of work which are 
to be required of all pupils of given grades. This has 
been done in fixing upon the array of constants listed 
above. Because we desire to achieve a high degree of 
physical efficiency in all pupils, there should be a 
requirement in physical education, in general science 
which to some extent touches upon hygiene, and in 
the social studies which concern themselves in part 
with the problems of community health. Because of 
our desire to integrate our society and realize in all' 
the social-civic aim, a three-year sequence in the social 
studies has been introduced. The opportunities for 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES in 

universal training of this sort are somewhat enhanced 
by some of the contacts in English and in the indus- 
trial and home arts. Some phases of recreational life 
are of such a character that they should be the com- 
mon heritage of all cultured persons. These are repre- 
sented in the reading interests recognized in the re- 
quirements in English and the social studies, in physi- 
cal education, in music and the graphic and related 
arts, as well as at other points in the list of required 
subjects. As recreational interests are also by nature in 
part dependent upon the individual, much of the train- 
ing in these fields is left for the variables and for the 
voluntary extra-curricular activities. The vocational 
aim applies so much in special to the needs of the in- 
dividual that almost no constants are listed for its at- 
tainment. Its only recognition is the requirement of a 
year of home arts for girls and of industrial arts for 
boys, a course in vocational civics in the eighth grade 
as part of the work in the social studies, and the 
incidental vocational values in other constant sub- 
jects. 

The necessity for continuing the training in the 
fundamental processes is also conceded in the list of 
constants. Development of ability in reading will be 
given some special attention in English and through 
application in other subjects. Training in written and 
oral expression is similarly supplied. Computational 
needs are met in the requirement of mathematics ex- 
tending through two years. This will include work 



ii2 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

in arithmetic and contact with such parts of algebra 
and geometry as are useful to all. The exclusion of 
handwriting as a special subject is explained later 
under the description of subjects of study. 

The achievement of the peculiar functions through 
the constants may be inferred from what has been said 
concerning the types of programs of study. It should 
be mentioned, however, that even in the list of con- 
stants there is some opportunity for exploration for 
guidance. This is true not only of the special subjects 
like music, the graphic and related arts, industrial arts, 
home arts, and vocational civics, but also in the 
" academic " subjects, English, mathematics, and the 
social studies. 

The variable subjects. — The wide range of curricu- 
lar materials which may be drawn upon for use in the 
variables of a program is suggested by the following 
list assembled from the courses and school ac- 
tivities finding mention in the literature descriptive 
of the practices in a large number of junior high 
schools : 

Academic 'Agriculture 
Literature, 8, 9 General Agriculture, 7, 8 
French, 7, 8, 9 Farm Crops, 9 
Spanish, 7, 8, 9 Gardening, 7, 8, 9 
Latin, 8, 9 Home Projects, 7, 8, 9 
Ancient History, 9 E.g., Poultry, Dairy, Hogs, 
General Mathematics Potatoes, Corn, Home Gar- 
Algebra, 8, 9 den, etc. 
Plane Geometry, 9 
1 General Science, 9 

1 Certain special sciences, such as physical geography, botany, 
zoology, and biology, are also found in ninth grades. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 



113 



Industrial Arts 
Benchwork in Wood, 7, 8, 9 
Carpentry, 7, 8, 9 
Cabinetmaking, 7, 8, 9 
Forging, 7, 8, 9 
Machine-Shop Work, 7, 8, 9 
Gas Engine and Automo- 
bile, 8, 9 
Sheet Metal, 7, 8, 9 
Brick and Cement, 7, 8, 9 
Electrical, 7, 8, 9 
Painting and Wood-finish- 
ing, 7. 8, 9 
Printing, 7, 8, 9 
Bookbinding, 7, 8, 9 
Mechanical Drawing, 7, 8, 9 
Applied Design, 7, 8, 9 
--.Pattern-Making, 8, 9 
Shop Mathematics, 7, 8, 9 

Domestic Arts 
Sewing, 7, 8, 9 
Millinery, 7, 8, 9 
Costume Design, 7, 8, 9 
Textiles, 7, 8, 9 
House Decoration, 7, 8, 9 
Cooking, 7, 8, 9 
Marketing, 7, 8, 9 
Meal Serving, 7, 8, 9 
Dietetics, 7, 8, 9 
Home Nursing, 7, 8, 9 
Laundry, 7, 8, 9 
Home Management, 7, 8, 9 
Household Mathematics, 7, 8, 
9 



Commercial Work 
Penmanship, 7, 8, 9, 
Bookkeeping, 7, 8, 9 
Business Arithmetic, 8, 9 
Typewriting, 7, 8, 9 
Shorthand, 8, 9 
Commercial Geography, 9 
Commercial History, 9 
Clerical Work for School, 7, 
8,9 

Technical Music, 7, 8, 9 
Music Appreciation, 7, 8, 9 

Choruses, 7, 8, 9 

Glee Clubs, 7, 8, 9 

Orchestras, 7, 8, 9 

Bands, 7, 8, 9 

Graphic and Related Arts 
Freehand Drawing, 7, 8, 9 
Design, 7, 8, 9 
Lettering, 7, 8, 9 
Picture Study, 7, 8, 9 
Plastic Art, 7, 8, 9 

Extra-Curricular Activities, 7, 

8,9 

School Journal 

Athletic Contests 

Dramatic Club 

Declamation Club 

Debating Society 

Literary Society 

Choral Club 

Assemblies 

Social Service Clubs 

Student Government 

Management of Student Af- 
fairs 

Boy Scouts 

Camp-Fire Girls 



The numbers following each title represent the grade 
or grades for which the course, activity, or group of 
activities has been regarded as appropriate by those 



ii4 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

administering the junior high schools in whose pro- 
grams they were found. 

Some items in the list are names of bodies of ma- 
terials which may fittingly be organized into distinct 
courses extending through one or more semesters or 
years. Examples of these are the languages, general 
science, and many appearing under the non-academic 
classifications. Others, such as wood-finishing, mar- 
keting, dietetics, meal serving, and picture study, are 
usually not advantageously taught as separate units in 
the junior high school, but are preferably presented in 
combination with others. Still others will lend them- 
selves to presentation by either of these two plans. 
Which procedure is to be followed in the last case 
must depend upon the amount of time that should be 
given to the activity to achieve the purpose in con- 
templation. Thus, if the purpose is exploration only, 
the time may be briefer than if the purpose is special 
vocational preparation. Combination with other ac- 
tivities to make a course will sometimes satisfy the 
former requirement, while presentation as a separate 
course will usually be necessary to satisfy the latter. 
Whether it is exploration or special vocational educa- 
tion which is to be provided must in turn hinge upon 
the local situation, as was indicated in a preceding 
chapter. Sometimes both will be 'desirable. 

There has been added to the list a group of extra- 
curricular activities which have been found to be fruit- 
ful in educational returns. Their peculiar values are 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 115 

to receive special attention in the following chapter, 
but the activities are named here because of a recent 
tendency to make them a part of every pupil's weekly 
program. 

There is no pretension that all the activities listed 
are suited to the grades indicated. Only experimenta- 
tion can settle this question. As all of them have been 
listed as being carried on in junior high-school grades, 
there is ground for confidence that very few will, by 
the trial of years and with the application of proper 
pedagogical skill, be found to be unadaptable. Perhaps 
as much question will be raised to listing Latin and 
algebra for eighth-grade variables and plane geometry 
for a ninth-grade variable as by any place assigned, but 
if discretion is used in admitting students of these 
grades to these courses, they will not be found to be 
beyond the mental capacities of the grades for which 
they are listed. 

It is too much to hope that many junior high schools 
will soon offer as wide a range of variables as is 
represented in this list. The desirability of doing so is 
certainly not as much open to question as is the feasi- 
bility. With the importance of the purposes to be 
realized through them, to be presently reviewed, the 
list should be as large as possible. If the offering of 
variables must be restricted, it will perhaps be best first 
to omit those having the least immediacy to com- 
munity needs in exploration and preliminary voca- 
tional education. It will be necessary to keep in mind 



n6 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



simultaneously, of course, the desirability of conserv- 
ing the interests of the child. 

The impression of the hopelessness of providing 
such a wide range of variables is somewhat mitigated 
when the activities are listed as follows : 



NINTH GRADE 

Literature 

Modern Foreign Language 

Latin 

Ancient History 

General Mathematics 

Algebra 

Plane Geometry 

General Science 

Industrial Arts 

Commercial Work 

Agriculture 

Music 

Graphic and Related Arts 



SEVENTH GRADE 

Modern Foreign Language 

Industrial Arts 

Domestic Arts 

Commercial Work 

Agriculture 

Music 

Graphic and Related Arts 

EIGHTH GRADE 

Literature 

Modern Foreign Language 
Latin 

Algebra or General Mathemat- 
ics 

Industrial Arts 
Domestic Arts 
Commercial Work 
Agriculture 
Music 
Graphic and Related Arts 

Here the activities and subjects are grouped for the 
most part by the large divisions under which they 
classify and placed in the list for the grades for which 
they have been deemed appropriate. The arrangement 
shows also a number of variables increasing from the 
seventh grade to the ninth, which comports with the 
decreasing proportion of constants listed earlier in the 
chapter. This device is misleading in the opposite di- 
rection from that of the previous catalogue of activi- 
ties and is not in the form in which the variables 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 117 

should be listed in a program. For such use most of 
the titles should be made more specific and the number? 
of periods should be indicated. At the same time il 
suggests better than does the full list the practicability 
of a generous provision of variables. 

The role of these variable subjects in the achieve- 
ment of the recreational and vocational aims in edu- 
cation has already been stated, although somewhat 
briefly: since realization of the former aim must be 
in considerable measure through differentiation rather 
than through efforts at integration, and of the latter 
almost entirely so, it is in the variables that this dif- 
ferentiation is to be effected. It should not be under- 
stood from this that the variables will be devoid of 
meaning for the two remaining ultimate aims. There 
is hardly an activity listed that may not incidentally or 
even very directly assist in the attainment of the physi- 
cal and the social-civic aims. There must, for example, 
be contact between the courses in literature or general 
science and the social-civic aim, or between the courses 
in the domestic arts and the physical aim. But the 
bearing is chiefly upon the aims in which differentia- 
tion is permissible or desirable. 

Essentially the same statement may be made for the 
fulfilment of the proximate aim of training in the 
fundamental processes. This aim being* identical for 
all, must be achieved, as has been stated, through con- 
stant more than through variable subjects. Neverthe- 
less, a moment's consideration will make manifest the 



u8 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

possibility of giving some such training in the latter, 
especially through application. 

The influence of a generous list of variable subjects 
on the performance of the several peculiar functions of 
the junior high school is easily seen. Without doubt 
they will contain for many children a justification for 
remaining in school and for many parents for contin- 
uing their children in attendance. They will be of 
material assistance in economizing time. This will be 
true for the pupil who plans to prepare for a higher 
institution and may elect a modern foreign language 
or algebra in the eighth grade as well as for the one 
who knows he must leave school in a year or two and 
on this account elects subjects smacking of vocational 
preparation. The advantages of such a list in recog- 
nizing individual differences, exploring for guid- 
ance, and providing the beginnings of vocational edu- 
cation is too obvious to require illustration. We may 
anticipate also that accomplishing the remaining 
peculiar functions, excepting perhaps providing con- 
ditions for better teaching, will be notably encouraged. 
But to perform adequately all these functions, the of- 
fering of variables may not be niggardly. 

CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS ACCORDING TO ABILITY FOR 
PURPOSES OF INSTRUCTION 

A number of junior high schools have already 
availed themselves of the opportunity, provided by the 
concentration of pupils of the given grades accompany- 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 119 

ing the establishment of the new institution in all but 
the smaller communities, of grouping children of each 
grade according to ability and adapting the work to 
the capacity of each group. Such grouping is desir- 
able, especially if, as has been advocated in the pre- 
ceding chapter, over-age but normal children are to be 
advanced to the junior high school without completion 
of all the work of the sixth grade. 

Differentiation of work on the basis of ability is 
accomplished by a rather wide variety of details of 
plan. Among the first instances of such differentiation 
in secondary schools is that described by Clerk 1 as 
in operation in a four-year high school. This is a 
plan which groups pupils in three classifications, (1) 
superior, (2) medium, and (3) slow, the pupils' as- 
signments to groups being " determined by the 
teachers' observations and the pupils' grades." A 
number of junior high schools are now differentiating 
the work by plans somewhat similar, some of them in 
recent years supplementing the testimony of teachers' 
observations and pupils' grades by measures of intelli- 
gence obtained by means of such tests as the Stanford 
revision of the Binet Tests, the Otis Group Intelligence 
Tests, the Freeman-Rugg Tests, and the Haggerty In- 
telligence Examinations. 

The grouping should be applied to all courses in 
which the number of pupils enrolled will justify and in 

1 Clerk, F. E. : " The Arlington Plan of Grouping Pupils ac- 
cording to Ability in the Arlington High School, Arlington, Mas- 
sachusetts." School Review, XXV, 26-47, January, 1917. 



120 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL; 

which the instruction is not primarily individual, as it 
is, for example, in some of the courses in the practical 
arts. It will be more frequently applicable to the con- 
stant subjects than to the variables on account of the 
larger numbers of pupils enrolled in the former. 

Although objections have sometimes been raised to 
grouping pupils according to ability, they are tending 
to disappear. The plan seems to be more suitable for 
the slower pupil, since he is not as much discouraged 
by his lack of capacity as when he is thrown in com- 
petition with the much more highly endowed. It is 
more satisfactory for the latter, since his progress is 
not impeded by the presence of the slow in the same 
group. Democracy in education is at the same time 
being conserved through each pupil's attempting to 
go at a rate more nearly suited to him and through the 
contact of all pupils with as nearly identical materials 
in the constants as the differing capacities of the pupils 
will permit. 

THE SUBJECTS OF STUDY 

There is essayed here a brief characterization of 
each of the subject-groups which have been introduced 
in the suggested program of studies. Each characteri- 
zation attempts in a few strokes — sometimes, no 
doubt, too bold — to depict the type of content and 
mode of presentation which should obtain. It is ad- 
mitted that descriptions of the sort attempted, on ac- 
count of the limited lessons of educational science in 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 121 

this field to date, may lay little claim to finality. But 
in preparing these statements the author has been 
guided by important reports of committees, by knowl- 
edge gained through an examination of a large num- 
ber of descriptions which are being followed in the 
presentation of junior high-school subjects of study, 
by findings of such application of scientific methods to 
solution of curricular problems in these grades as have 
made their appearance, and by the aim to present a 
characterization which would seem to be adapted to 
achieving the special purposes of the junior high 
school. 

English. — Most courses of study in English in 
junior high schools are disappointing in their too great 
conformity to the traditional in materials and methods. 
Not infrequently, for example, as in the usual upper- 
grade requirements, there are five periods per week of 
" reading " aiming at perfection in oral presentation 
rather than at rapid perusal for content, five of un- 
applied grammar, and about half as much spelling. 
Composition, oral and written, has received scant rec- 
ognition in these courses in English for seventh and 
eighth grades. 

The report of the National Joint Committee on Eng- 
lish 1 is much at variance with the organization thus 
characterized. Its recommendations are for an equal 
recognition of literature and of composition. " The 

1 Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools. U. S. Bu- 
reau of Education Bulletin, 1917, No. 2. 



122 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

essential object "of the former " is so to appeal to the 
developing sensibilities of early adolescence as to lead 
to eager and appreciative reading of books of as high 
an order as is possible for the given individual to the 
end of both present and future development of his 
character and the formation of the habit of turning .to 
good books for companionship in hours of leisure." 
This statement demands training in reading through 
application for which the child is ready at this time 
in his school career, more than the enhancement of 
ability in oral reading almost solely. However, it does 
not preclude all attention to the latter. The composi- 
tion is to include both oral and written work and is to 
be guided in some part by a functional grammar 
much less in amount than is conventionally presented. 
Regular work in spelling is to be continued in the 
junior high school, drill to be " centered upon the 
words that investigation shows are frequently mis- 
spelled by pupils of these years." 

It does not seem necessary to require for this work 
in English more than five periods per week through 
the three years of the junior high school. About half 
of the time — perhaps two periods per week — should 
be devoted to instruction in literature, which should 
deal not only with materials intended for class use, but 
also with out-of-school reading. It may not neglect 
periodicals. The remaining time should be given over 
to composition, grammar, and spelling, the subject last 
named receiving perhaps ten minutes of attention on 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 123 

days when composition or grammar appears on the 
program. The justification for reducing the total 
amount of time to be devoted to instruction in English 
which such a plan contemplates is to be found in part 
in the saving to be effected by eliminating a large 
amount of non- functioning grammar and in training 
in reading and expression which is to be given through 
other subjects of study, especially if all the purposes 
of these other subjects are properly held in mind in 
teaching them. 

Among the variables listed in an earlier part of this 
chapter has been included a course in literature open 
to selection by pupils in eighth and ninth grades. The 
purpose of this course should differ in no important 
respect from that of the literary component of re- 
quired courses in English as stated by the committee 
from whose report quotation has been made. But it 
would offer those pupils having the inclination the op- 
portunity to extend under skilful guidance their read- 
ing contacts to wider areas. Such a course would be 
a special recognition of that large number of children 
who early manifest tendencies toward omnivorousness 
in reading interests. 

The social studies. — A course in the social studies 
which seems to be adapted to assist both in achieving 
ultimate aims in education and in performing the 
peculiar functions of the junior high school should in- 
clude the content suggested by the following list of 
subjects: 



124 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Seventh Grade 

Geography (full year). 
Eighth Grade 

American History (half year). 

Vocational Civics (half year). 
Ninth Grade 

American History (half year). 

Community Civics (half year). 

This plan of organization may be seen to include a 
year each of geography, American history, and civics. 
The question of whether the half year allotted to the 
subjects in the eighth and ninth grades shall be ad- 
ministered by completing the work in a subject by con- 
centration during five days each week for a half year 
or by alternation on successive days throughout an 
academic year must await the answer of educational 
science. The year-place assigned, the amount of time 
devoted to, and the specific content to be comprehended 
by each subject should similarly not be regarded as 
fixed until we have had more opportunities for experi- 
mentation. 

The nature of the work in geography and its extent 
must depend in no small part upon what is covered in 
the grades preceding the seventh. There can be no 
doubt of the possibility of finding enough material 
rich in social significance to occupy the pupils for five 
periods per week throughout a school year. Because 
of the very necessary presentation of physiographical 
foundations at earlier points in the work in geography 
and the presentation of others in the course in general 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 125 

science prescribed for eighth grade, this work in geog- 
raphy should concern itself no more than is impera- 
tive with such materials. If the materials on " Euro- 
pean beginnings of American history" or the Euro- 
pean history appropriate to grades below the seventh 
have been deferred and the geographical materials 
stressed in their stead, it would be more fitting to 
reduce the time here assigned to the latter subject to 
a half year, and to present in' the time thus gained 
the deferred materials in history. 

The full year of work in American history will re- 
quire no defense. Breaking it into two parts has been 
urged by the desirability of introducing vocational 
civics early enough to be effective in educational and 
vocational guidance with a larger number of pupils. 
This desirability is also a sufficient justification for 
deviation from the plan of organization presented by 
the Committee on Social Studies. 1 

The course in vocational civics — often called the 
" life career " course — should make a survey of the 
world's work and study a number of specific vocations 
as to their value in social service, the personal quali- 
ties required for participation, the preparation neces- 
sary, the remuneration, the working season, the status 
of the workers, etc. Such a course is too great in 
social-civic value and too essential to the performance 
of the exploratory function to be omitted from the 

1 The Social Studies in Secondary Education. U. S. Bureau 
of Education Bulletin, 1916, No. 28. 



126 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

group of constants. 1 It might advisably be presented 
as early as the seventh grade, were it not that our 
program already provides for some such exploration 
through the practical arts required in that grade. The 
latter type of exploration should preferably precede 
that provided in the " life-career " course. 

The course in community civics, as has been sug- 
gested by a Special Committee of the Commission on 
the Reorganization of Secondary Education, 2 should 
deal with such topics as community health, protection 
of life and property, recreation, education, civic 
beauty, wealth, communication, transportation, migra- 
tion, charities, and correction. The need for such a 
course is manifest from its content. 

There must be a place in the course in social studies 
in the junior high school for such principles of eco- 
nomics and sociology as are within the range of 
mental comprehension of children in these grades. As 
the materials of the courses already named will offer 
frequent opportunity for the presentation and illumi- 
nation of these principles, to neglect to give them rec- 
ognition will be to subtract much from the value of 
these courses. On the other hand, it does not at pres- 
ent seem feasible or desirable to present these ma- 
terials in a separate course. There must also be 
frequent contact of the courses in the group of social 

1 Some junior high schools present the life-caretr materials 
as a part of the courses in English. 

2 The Teaching of Community Civics. U. S. Bureau of Edu- 
cation Bulletin, 1915, No. 23. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 127 

studies with matters of civic and social significance in 
current events. 

In the suggested program of studies ancient history- 
has been listed as a variable for ninth grade. There 
are many students in this grade who will desire this 
course and to whom it should be offered. Its remoter 
contacts with the needs of life when contrasted with 
the subjects we have listed in the prescriptions in the 
social studies do not warrant its being included with 
them. 

Mathematics. — There is general agreement that 
there are certain computational abilities with which 
all should be equipped. Few will deny the importance 
also for present-day living of quantitative thinking 
and the need of training in mathematics for its en- 
couragement. These needs touch several aspects of 
life, such as one's vocational labors, one's cooperation 
as a citizen in governmental matters, and one's respon- 
sibilities in other social and economic relationships. 
Much is being done in imparting these skills and in 
promoting the quantitative thinking during the first 
six years of the child's school life. More may be ac- 
complished in these grades by a better selection of the 
materials and of the methods of presenting them, but 
not enough to free the junior high school of obliga- 
tions in this connection. 

Until the appearance recently of several sets of text- 
books in mathematics for junior high schools, the 
courses in this subject have manifested little tendency 



128 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

to break with tradition. They have been made up in 
most schools of the usual two years of arithmetic in 
the seventh and eighth grades and beginning algebra 
in the ninth, all of this work being required of every 
pupil. As almost all the new texts have in com- 
mon the characteristic of including to a greater or less 
extent the supra-arithmetical materials in the course 
for seventh and eighth grades, their introduction has 
led to a corresponding change in courses in junior high 
schools. Despite these changes algebra still remains 
a constant in ninth grade. 

The vocations into which our students go will de- 
mand differing amounts of training in mathematics. 
Some of them will require little or none, others will 
require ability in arithmetical operations only, while 
still others will need a knowledge of higher mathe- 
matics. The non-vocational demands for computa- 
tional ability and for quantitative thinking which will 
apply to all will be limited for the most part to the 
arithmetical. /After all possible efforts at the saving 
of time through eliminating useless materials and 
through selecting the most effective methods of pres- 
entation, we shall probably have need to continue to 
train in the seventh and eighth grades for accuracy and 
speed in the fundamental operations. Another large 
portion of the time to be devoted to required mathe- 
matics should be spent upon the social and economic 
materials, both computational and informational, such 
as banking methods, investments, mortgages, keeping 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 129 

simple accounts, building and loan associations, taxes 
and public finance, and life insurance. Here will be 
given those portions of commercial arithmetic with 
which all should come in contact. 

The earlier arguments for introducing algebraic and 
geometric materials into seventh and eighth grades 
were drawn from a comparison of European and 
American schools in which it was found that the 
former give these subjects place earlier than do the 
latter. Such evidence is, however, better proof that 
the earlier introduction may be accomplished, than 
that it should be. 

But there is a growing conviction that there are por- 
tions of algebra and geometry which are of sufficient 
value for the purposes we have set down to be required 
of all somewhere in these two grades. The solution 
of many arithmetical problems is made easier even by 
the meager knowledge required in such processes as 
evaluation, the solution of simple equations, or in 
simple problems in ratio and proportion. At the 
same time skill in these processes is to be regarded as 
propaedeutic to other subjects sufficiently important 
to find a place in the curricula of most students who 
go on through the junior and senior high school. 1 
There is no evidence that the elementary operations 

1 Rugg, H. O., and Clark, J. R., in their monograph, Scientific 
Methods ^ in the Reconstruction of Ninth-Grade Mathematics 
(University of Chicago Press), present the best study extant on 
the supra-arithmetical mathematics most needed for propaedeutic 
and vocational purposes. Unfortunately it throws little light on 
how much of this may be presented in the seventh and eighth 
grades. 



i 3 o THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

to which reference has been made are out of reach 
of the ability of average seventh- and eighth-grade 
pupils. There are portions of geometry, also, which 
are sufficiently fundamental to be included in the 
curricula of all pupils. They are mostly concrete and 
constructive, i.e., non-demonstrational, and, therefore, 
more likely than the demonstrational to be within the 
comprehension of pupils in seventh and eighth grades. 
It does not yet appear that, if these parts of algebra 
and geometry which should be required of all are to 
be added to the work in arithmetic as characterized, 
more than two years will be necessary for effective 
presentation of this arithmetic, algebra and geometry. 
This will be more nearly true if the mathematical 
operations peculiar to other subjects are taught at 
appropriate points in those subjects where it is peda- 
gogically economical to present them. 

The additional mathematics necessary for efficient 
participation in specialized vocational labors should 
not be required of all pupils indiscriminately, but 
should be listed with the variables. Here would be 
included the extended commercial, household, and in- 
dustrial arithmetic planned for those who will find 
their work in the business world, in the home, and in 
the shop, respectively. Here also must be included the 
full-year courses in algebra, geometry, or correlated 
higher mathematics, necessary only for those who 
enter occupations requiring more extended training 
than is required for those whose school careers will 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 131 

end when they have completed the junior high school. 
Many — perhaps even most — pupils going into the 
senior high school would elect algebra\ or general 
mathematics in the ninth grade. Whether the indi- 
vidual pupil should so elect mathematics may be in 
part determined by his ability to handle those portions 
of algebra and geometry introduced into the preceding 
grades. Especially capable pupils planning to enter 
occupations requiring more extended preparation in 
mathematics should be encouraged to elect the courses 
in supra-arithmetical mathematics in eighth and ninth 
grades. 

General science. — There should be no need, in this 
day of man's rapidly expanding mastery over the 
forces of nature through achievements in science, to 
contend at length for the desirability of making 
generous recognition of materials in this field in the 
curricula in junior high schools. Nor should we 
continue to defer these contacts to such a time as will, 
because of elimination, preclude giving such training 
to large proportions of the school population. 

The grades of the modern elementary school must 
do more than has been done in most of our schools 
to date in introducing the child to these materials 
through courses in nature study, in geography, and 
hygiene. There will be occasions for giving instruc- 
tion in science incidentally in some of the courses in 
the junior high school. This will be true of geography, 
in which, even while stressing the social, there must 



132 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

be some recognition of earth science. It will be true 
of physical education, and of the industrial, agricul- 
tural, and home arts. 

But a field as significant in fitting young people for 
life in the modern world may not be left to incidental 
contacts ; it must be given special recognition in separate 
courses. And it is this which prompts the listing of a 
course in science as a constant in the eighth grade 
and as a variable in the ninth. It is made variable in 
the latter grade because there will be individual pupils, 
especially among those leaving school early, whose best 
good will be conserved by a greater latitude of election. 
Most pupils should have general science through both 
years. 

There is almost common agreement that the first 
course or courses in science in the earlier years of a 
six-year secondary-school period should be general 
science. Its suitability as beginning work may be 
partially shown in the aims regarded as most im- 
portant by teachers of the subject: (i) understanding, 
appreciation, and control of one's everyday environ- 
ment, (2) appreciation of the applications of science 
in industrial and social life, (3) a fund of valuable 
information about nature and the sciences, (4) train- 
ing in the use of scientific method in solving problems, 
and (5) preparation and foundation for later study 
of special sciences. 1 To achieve these purposes to any 

1 Howe, C. M. : What Eighty Teachers Think as to the Aims 
and Subject-Matter of General Science. General Science Quar- 
terly, II, 445-58, May, 1 91 8. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 133 

adequate extent in the time available the materials of 
the courses must be selected in such a way that the 
instruction will disregard the man-made boundaries 
between the special sciences, that it will be superficial 
and extensive rather than exhaustive and intensive, 
and that it will solve among others the most frequently 
recurring problems of the locality in the realm of 
natural science. No courses have appeared which have 
been constructed on scientific surveys of what are the 
most important of the many problems and on careful 
experimentation as to adaptability to these early years. 
What seem to be the better textbooks among the 
large number appearing are those which use as units 
of instruction problems which center around processes 
or devices used in modern life and not those which 
strive to preserve the artificial boundaries by classifying 
the units under the special sciences of physics, chem- 
istry, botany, zoology, etc. 

The foreign languages. — There have been listed in 
our suggested educational offering the foreign lan- 
guages at the date of this writing most frequently 
finding place in high-school programs of study. These 
are French, Spanish, and Latin. All have been in- 
cluded in the variables. The modern languages are 
proposed for all the grades of the junior high school, 
Latin for the eighth and ninth only. There are no 
doubt communities in which it will be deemed desir- 
able to include foreign languages other than those 
named, and still other communities in which it will 



134 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

be advisable to omit one or more of them. The 
languages to be offered and their number and extent 
in any school must depend upon the nature of the 
demand for them and the feasibility of including them 
in the program in the light of other curricular needs. 

There is a growing conviction that the American 
secondary school has over-recognized the field of for- 
eign language and that far too large a proportion of 
those in attendance have had work in it. This con- 
viction has gained point especially since the educa- 
tional world has arrived at a more discriminating con- 
ception of the theory of general discipline than was 
formerly prevalent and the accompanying discovery of 
the limited area of contact with the ultimate aims of 
education of the knowledge of a foreign language to 
be gained in a few years of study. The clarification of 
objectives in each subject which seems now to be on 
the way will be followed by a decline in the proportion 
of secondary-school students taking the foreign lan- 
guages. ■■; 

Nevertheless, there will perhaps always be those who 
should have open to them the opportunity of the study 
of some language other than the mother tongue. There 
are reasons for providing this opportunity earlier than 
is now the practice, e.g., the need of the extended 
training through a longer period of years so as to 
make it more nearly possible to become efficient in the 
language studied. 

Through their adaptability to presentation by means 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 135 

of the direct method and through the possibility of as- 
sembling for properly teaching them a large amount 
of easy and carefully graded materials for reading, the 
modern foreign languages lend themselves to instruc- 
tion of pupils as young as those in the seventh grade. 

Latin, on the other hand, lacks adaptability to the 
use of the direct method and is relatively wanting 
also in a wide range of easy reading materials. An 
examination of manuals in this language prepared for 
seventh and eighth grades shows them to conform 
rather closely to those we have long seen in use in 
ninth grades, i.e., to be organized for presentation by 
the grammar-translation method These facts tend to 
incapacitate Latin as a subject for seventh and eighth 
grades. It may, however, be opened to election by 
eighth-grade pupils who are desirous of taking it and 
who are at the same time in the group of more capable 
pupils, but hardly by those of average ability or less. 

Physical education. — The reader may recall that in 
the earlier portion of this chapter in which the plan 
of organization of the program of studies is set forth, 
provision was made for physical education in the 
constants for each year of the junior high school. This 
provision is intended to comprehend the "physical 
training " appropriate to these years of the child's 
life and such physiology and hygiene as should be 
introduced as an incidental, but withal, important part 
of the former. This field will be recognized as well 
in the work in general science, which, if it is to con- 



136 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

cern itself with the explanation of those phenomena 
whose understanding and control are of the most vital 
significance to the individual and to society, must be 
constituted in no small part of problems of hygienic 
import. Vocational and community civics, the home 
and industrial arts, and other subjects in the program, 
both constant and variable, should also make valuable 
contributions to physical education. 

It is now almost a commonplace to insist that the 
instruction in " physiology and hygiene " in these 
grades must come to stress the hygienic, rather than 
the physiological and the anatomical as we have done 
in the past and are still doing. In addition to pro- 
viding the intellectual basis for the control of behavior 
in its hygienic aspects, we must proceed definitely to 
establish correct hygienic habits in personal, home, 
school, and community matters. To do this we shall 
need to seek for opportunities for application of the 
rationalizations in practical sanitary and hygienic ac- 
tivities. The junior high-school period being that in 
which sex maturity arrives for most children, one 
important item of concern for it must be education in 
matters of sex. 

The trend of thought and practice in physical train- 
ing in the school years associated with the junior high 
school has been away from formal gymnastics and 
toward games, athletics and folk dancing as the prin- 
cipal constituents. While it will be retained in some 
part for corrective advantages it may possess and for 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 137 

other reasons more or less important, the use of the 
former as the chief or sole kind of activity develops a 
dislike for bodily exercise and thereby discourages 
rather than fosters the establishment of adult interests 
in physical recreation which will tend to offset the 
evils of our modern sedentary life. Properly admin- 
istered, the latter type will realize in larger measure 
almost all the values of the former and in addition 
bring certain social benefits and these permanent in- 
terests in physical recreation. It will encourage a more 
general voluntary participation in athletic activities 
on the part of the student body. 

This program of physical training must include an 
adaptation of activities to the needs of boys and girls, 
since they are at this time manifesting the fundamental 
differences in physical make-up characteristic of the 
two sexes in adulthood. Differences among members 
of the same sex must also be recognized. 

The fine arts. — Music and the graphic and related 
arts are of sufficient importance to the training of 
youth to be made requirements in the junior high 
school. The program of studies suggested at an earlier 
point in the current chapter has made constants of both 
in the seventh grade, offers the alternative of either 
in the ninth grade, and presents both as additional 
variables in all three grades. There are also applica- 
tions of the latter in the courses in the practical arts 
and in the assembly singing in which all pupils par- 
ticipate one or more days each week. 



138 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The functions of this work should be to raise the 
general level of aesthetic participation and appreciation 
to furnish opportunities for exploration in order to 
assist in planning more discerningly the subsequent ac- 
tivities of the individual pupil, and to give, as far as 
is practicable in these early years and within the re- 
strictions of the school budget, the beginnings of voca- 
tional instruction for those who desire to specialize 
along these lines. The excellent socializing possi- 
bilities inherent in these subjects should not be left 
unmentioned. 

Although music is listed as a constant in seventh 
grade and as an alternative in ninth, it is not to be 
contemplated that all will be required to take identical 
work in this subject. We are now aware that in- 
dividual variation as to ability, capacity, and interest 
in music in any grade is so great as to mark such a 
proposal as highly impracticable. 1 In junior high 
schools large enough it will be advisable to make pro- 
vision for two or more kinds of training that may be 
accepted as qualifying on this prescription. There 
are those who are relatively poorly equipped by nature 
and training for whom there should be courses sub- 
ordinating technical music and participation to ap- 
preciation. In the courses for this group the player- 
piano, the victrola and other means for reproduction 
will be in frequent use. The outline of activity for 

1 Seashore, C. E. : " The Role of a Consulting Suprvisor in 
Music." Eighteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the 
Study of Education (1919), Part II, pp. 111-23. 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 139 

the remainder, better, equipped than the former, may- 
be constituted in larger part of technical music and 
participation. Any one of the many sorts of musical 
activity should be accepted as satisfying the require- 
ment for these pupils, among them the regular course 
in technical music offered in the school, active member- 
ship in choruses, glee clubs, orchestras, and bands 
when organized and trained at regular intervals under 
school auspices, and individual tuition in vocal and 
instrumental music either with members of the 
school staff or with approved extra-school in- 
structors. 

Elections may be made in the time allowed for 
variables from the offerings just described as satis- 
fying the requirement. Partly on this account this 
offering should be as generous as possible. Courses 
in theory are best reserved for the senior high school. 

The contacts in the courses in the arts other than 
music should include the graphic and related arts and, 
like those in music, should keep in mind the two levels 
of appreciation and participation. In the required work 
in the seventh grade and in the alternative courses 
in the ninth the former level will be stressed much 
more than has usually been the practice, although pro- 
duction will not be disregarded. The variables may 
justifiably emphasize production more than do the con- 
stant and alternative courses. Both constants and 
variables should be constituted of a wide variety of 
the arts, graphic as well as others. They should not 



140 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

be restricted to mere " drawing " as ordinarily taught. 
As great values are to be derived from interrelation 
of the fine and the practical arts, opportunities for 
application of the former in the latter should be mul- 
tiplied by close co-operation between the two depart- 
ments. Advanced specializations in the field of the 
graphic and related arts must be left for the program 
of studies of the senior high school. 

The practical arts. — There are few communities 
whose junior high schools should be regarded as com- 
mensurately performing their functions without mak- 
ing some offering, even though limited, in each of the 
four main fields of the practical arts which have come 
to find a place in secondary-school programs, viz., the 
industrial arts, the home arts, commercial work, and 
agriculture. The amount offered in each of these lines 
must reflect community needs, but at least enough 
should be offered in each to permit satisfactory ex- 
ploration. In the fields requiring special recognition 
because of community needs there should be enough 
to allow also for the beginning of serious vocational 
education. For instance, there is hardly a community 
which could justify a failure to provide three years 
of work in the home arts, an amount which would 
constitute the beginning of specialization in that line; 
few rural communities could excuse a smaller offering 
than this in the two lines of home arts and agriculture; 
junior high schools in industrial and commercial cen- 
ters should provide for the beginnings of specialization 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 141 

in the home arts, in industrial arts, and in commercial 
work; there are communities in which such oppor- 
tunities should be open in all four of the lines 
named. 

The total numbers of periods of constants and vari- 
ables in the suggested program have been so arranged 
that the latter may make up a sixth, a third, and a 
half of the work of the pupil in the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth grades, respectively. It may be seen that 
a pupil might fill the variable portion of his curriculum 
exclusively with work in the practical arts and thus 
do much in exploration, or, if the need arose, even 
go appreciably in the direction of vocational education. 
This privilege would be enlarged in some instances by 
the constants in seventh grade of industrial arts, for 
boys and home arts for girls. 

In order to perform satisfactorily the function of 
exploration in the special field of industrial arts op- 
portunity should be given the pupil to make a rather 
wide variety of occupational contacts. To restrict him 
to the single field of bench work in wood — what is 
usually taught as " manual training " — , concerned as 
it is with the making of formal projects, and to supple- 
ment this sometimes by bits of desultory " mechanical 
drawing," may not be looked upon as more than a 
feeble beginning. Many of those who have thought 
carefully about the means of exploration are insisting 
that the first courses in industrial arts in the junior 
high school give the pupil an acquaintance with the 



i 4 2 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

activities of a number of fundamental industries,/ The 
report of the survey of vocational education for 
Denver, for example, recommends that the shop work 
of the seventh and eighth grades include activities 
from wood working, metal working, sheet-metal con- 
struction, printing and bookbinding, electrical construc- 
tion, simple construction in concrete, building materials, 
and drawing. 1 Just what industries are to be illus- 
trated in these earlier courses, and in what proportion, 
might well be made to depend somewhat upon their 
representation in the community, especially if the pop- 
ulation was stable rather than shifting. Perhaps also 
the more common of these industries should be illus- 
trated in the seventh-grade constant in industrial arts, 
the less common to be recognized in subsequent vari- 
ables. The " units " of work of which a course is 
composed should be short, but not too brief to make 
real exploration possible and to provide enough serious 
typical activities to tax the perseverance of the boy, 
offer him the opportunity of surmounting the diffi- 
culties which confront him, and provide genuine train- 
ing in the field represented. These " type " experi- 
ences should take place under conditions as nearly 
like those to be found in the industry itself as may be 
arranged. Such participation should be supplemented 
by excursions to places where the work in the industry 
Js going forward, by discussions by the instructor or 

1 Report of the School Survey of School District Number One 
in the City and County of Denver, Part III, Vocational Educa- 
tion, pp. 32-33- 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 143 

other informed person, and by readings bearing on the 
industry. Through all these avenues the pupil should 
gain as large a knowledge of each occupation touching 
its materials, tools, and operations, as well as its value 
in social service, personal qualities required for par- 
ticipation, full preparation necessary, remuneration, 
working season, and status of the workers, as may be 
given in the short time available. 

Courses organized after the manner just delineated 
will have in addition to their exploratory and voca- 
tional values rich social values emanating from the 
knowledge they give of the world's work and the 
world's workers, a knowledge much needed for the 
civic and social co-operation and sympathy essential 
in a democracy. They will be seen in many respects 
to be designed to perform functions similar to those 
performed by the course in vocational civics already 
described and with which they should be carefully co- 
ordinated. 

Besides the courses in industrial arts requisite for 
exploration there should be, in line with a recommen- 
dation previously made, such half-year or full-year 
courses, more in the nature of specializations, as are 
justified by the needs of the pupils and of the com- 
munity. These should usually follow the courses al- 
ready described and be taken in the ninth grade, but 
should be open to over-age pupils of the seventh and 
eighth grades who are certain to leave school early and 
whose occupational destination seems to be fixed. 



144 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The first course in the home arts, the constant for 
seventh-grade girls, should be a general course intro- 
ducing materials from a wide range of activities in this 
field. If work in these arts has already found place 
in the preceding grades it will need to be organized 
in the light of what is presented there. This and 
subsequent courses, the latter being concerned with 
kinds of activities not explored in the former and with 
some beginnings of specializations, will provide much 
participation both in school and out in practical house- 
hold activities. Also, while this work is proceeding, 
as in the courses in industrial arts, experience will 
be added through excursions, discussions, and read- 
ing. 

The administration of the work in agriculture should 
differ from that of the two preceding arts. The course 
in general agriculture, including some study of farm 
crops, animal husbandry, soils, horticulture, farm me- 
chanics and farm management, may be postponed to 
the eighth grade. It may be preceded in the seventh 
grade, accompanied in the eighth, or followed in the 
ninth by gardening or home projects along many lines, 
a few of which have been suggested in the list of 
variables above. In agricultural communities it should 
be followed in ninth grade by some specialization re- 
flecting the needs of the community. 

It may not be practicable, because of the more ex- 
tended training required for admission to all but the 
humblest of business occupations, to offer opportunity 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 145 

in the junior high school for specialization in com- 
mercial work. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated 
to be feasible to offer some work in a number of sub- 
jects for purposes of exploration and for preliminary 
vocation training, among them penmanship, 1 commer- 
cial arithmetic, spelling, bookkeeping, typewriting, and 
shorthand. These materials should all be presented 
with as intimate contact with actual conditions of busi- 
ness as may be and accompanied by information con- 
cerning the occupations which they are planned to 
explore. Serious and extended specialization in com- 
mercial work must be deferred to the grades of the 
senior high school. 

Throughout the work in the courses in which the 
practical arts are being taught the pupil should be made 
aware of the adult standards of efficiency in the oc- 
cupation which he is exploring or in which he is re- 
ceiving preliminary vocational training. He may thus 
measure his own effectiveness and thereby estimate his 
possibilities of success in the field under consideration. 

1 Separate instruction in handwriting has been mentioned at 
no other point in the discussion of the subjects of study in the 
junior high school. This is because we seem warranted in be- 
lieving that through effective special instruction in the six pre- 
ceding grades, supplemented by incidental instruction in the 
junior high-school grades, very few children will fall short of 
the standards in quality and speed which those not going into 
commercial pursuits will need to meet in vocational and non- 
vocational activities. For those considering entrance upon 
commercial occupations, the special instruction in penmanship 
here suggested will be necessary. For the standards in quality 
see an article by the author in the Elementary School Journal, 
XVIII, 423-46, February, 1918. 



146 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

RELATION TO OTHER FEATURES 

In a preceding chapter it was pointed out that the 
peculiar functions of the junior high school are not 
completely separate and distinct from each other, but 
are, instead, much interinvolved. The features, also, 
have intimate relationships with each other. Thus, 
the feature whose discussion is just being concluded 
may be seen to be dependent upon the provision of 
other features to be discussed in the succeeding chapter. 
The hope of provision of such a program of studies 
as has been outlined must wait upon the possibilities 
of specialization of teaching work that accompanies 
departmentalization or semi-departmentalization ; a pro- 
gram partially variable requires promotion by subject; 
it may not be presented satisfactorily by traditional 
methods only nor by teachers with traditional attitudes 
and inadequate training who are in turn supervised by 
principals without a conception of the possibilities of 
this new institution; to administer the variables so 
that each child will have included in his curriculum 
those subjects which will be of greatest service to him 
will require the establishment of the machinery of an 
effective advisory system; many of the extra-curricular 
activities listed among the variables will be out of 
question without the social organization of the students; 
while many among both constants and variables may 
not be presented without improved housing and en- 
larged equipment. This dependence of the provision 



THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 147 

of a satisfactory program of studies upon many other 
features is evidence that a functioning reorganization 
may not be effected without the introduction of not 
one, nor a few, but of many features. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 

The limits of the present volume permit no extended 
treatment of any single feature of the junior high 
school. It attempts, however, to give brief attention, 
macroscopic rather than microscopic, to each feature 
occurring with considerable frequency. In this chapter 
are discussed briefly all features listed in Figure 7 
still left untouched, except for incidental reference, in 
the foregoing pages. The reader should find the de- 
vice in the figure referred to facilitating consideration 
of the importance of the features, or of variations of 
them, to effective reorganization. 

DEPARTMENTALIZATION 

Judging from the universality of its provision de- 
partmentalization of the teaching work seems to be 
regarded as a fundamental feature of the junior high 
school. In fact, this feature is often the only change 
that is made from the traditional organization which 
may be offered in defense of assigning the name junior 
high school to the reorganization effected. Moreover, 
what is ordinarily provided is not departmentalization 

148 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 149 

as much as it is semi-departmentalization in which a 
teacher gives instruction in two or three or even four 
subjects, rather than in one only. 

The trend of thought in some quarters is to approve 
this hesitancy to institute complete departmentalization, 
especially in the work of the seventh, but sometimes 
in the work of the eighth and ninth grades. Where 
the work of the grades below the seventh is in no part 
departmentalized, as is usually the case, the sudden 
change for the pupil to full departmentalization in 
the seventh grade would turn out to be even more dis- 
concerting for him than it is when it comes, as occurs 
under the 8-4 plan, two years later. It appears the 
better wisdom to move gradually toward full depart- 
mentalization from the one-teacher regimen of the pre- 
ceding grades, inuring the pupil by degrees to the re- 
sponsibilities and exigencies of the former. 

Specialization of the teacher's work- — synonymous 
with departmentalization — is essential to the perform- 
ance of a number of peculiar functions of the junior 
high school. Its vital relationship to providing the 
conditions for better teaching is one very frequently 
referred to in literature dealing with reorganization. 
The necessity for it in these grades as contrasted with 
grades below the seventh emanates from the teacher's 
need of an increasing knowledge of subject-matter 
with the increasing mental grasp of the pupil. With- 
out such specialization we may not hope for the extent 
of vocational education we should expect, nor may we 



150 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

demand that the teacher be capable of offering to 
pupils anything like adequate opportunities for ex- 
ploration. As a consequence, recognition of individual 
differences will be somewhat restricted. This special- 
ization should also bring with it more often than does 
the poorer preparation in subject-matter of the teacher 
in the conventional organization the inspiration of the 
pupil to better effort and a higher grade of scholar- 
ship. It should result in an enrichment of content and 
effectiveness of method that will enlarge the social- 
izing opportunities. These results will in turn be ac- 
companied by an improvement of the disciplinary 
situation. The achievement of this disciplinary phase 
of the function last named in Figure 7 should be 
markedly accelerated by the relief to the pupils through 
the changes of teachers and rooms that come with 
departmentalization. The socializing phase will be 
better performed by the larger number of teacher- 
personalities with which the child will make contact. 
Economy of time will in some measure be effected, 
because, through departmentalization, one teacher will 
present the work in the same subject in successive 
grades and will be in a position to know what is 
covered in each grade, thereby being enabled to avoid 
unnecessary duplication. Finally, by assisting in 
achieving a number of the functions as indicated, de- 
partmentalization will encourage the pupils' retention. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 151 

PROMOTION BY SUBJECT 

Subject-promotion is almost as common a feature 
of reorganization as is departmentalization. By some 
it is regarded as a part of the latter. Childs l found 
it to be " a well-nigh universal practice with junior 
high schools " in Indiana. The writer, in an investiga- 
tion made for a committee of the North Central As- 
sociation, found that, in a group of 46 reorganized 
schools distributed in twelve state* of the middle west, 
34 were promoting by subject. 2 The frequency of 
promotion is largely dependent upon the size of city. 
In small communities it is yearly and in the larger 
communities, usually semi-annual. 

The justification of including this feature may be 
sought in the widely recognized fact of the differing 
degrees of success, as measured by school marks, of 
the same pupils in different subjects. The situation 
may be illustrated by the measures of correlation found 
by Parker between the marks of 245 ninth-grade 
students. 3 The coefficients found may be illustrated 
by the following: 

English and History 62 

English and Science 58 

English and Algebra 55 

1 Op. cit., p. 47. 

2 Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the 
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools 
(1916), p. 186. 

8 Cited by Thorndike* E. L. : Educational Psychology, 1903, 
p. 36. 



152 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

English and Drawing .15 

Science and History 56 

Science and Algebra .40 

Science and Drawing 20 

A. G. Smith 1 found the coefficients of correlation 
for the marks of over 1500 children in the grammar 
grades of the New York City schools to be as follows : 

English— and Mathematics .395 

English and Geography 435 

English and Drawing 155 

Mathematics and Geography 36 

Mathematics and Drawing 14 

Geography and Drawing 125 

These coefficients give some support to the statement 
often made that, if a pupil succeeds in one subject 
there is considerable likelihood that he will succeed in 
others and that, if he does poorly in one that he will 
do poorly in others. At the same time the measures 
are small enough to urge the inclusion of promotion 
by subject as a feature of reorganization. 

Such inclusion would clearly be a recognition of in- 
dividual differences, because it would not force upon 
the pupil failing one or more " important " subjects 
the waste of time of repeating the work in which he 
has not failed. This he is often called upon to do. 
Permitting him to advance at least in the part in 
which he has been given passing grades and requiring 
him to repeat only those constants in which he has 
1 Ibid., p. 37- 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 153 

failed will often keep him in school past the period 
of compulsory education. The pupil affected by the 
traditional plan in the manner described, through the 
expression of the resentment he harbors is often a dis- 
turbing factor in the disciplinary situation, subtracts 
from the possibility of securing conditions for effec- 
tive teaching, and has a detrimental effect on scholar- 
ship. Promotion by subject should reduce the fre- 
quency of these obstructions. It is necessary also 
in administering a program which is to allow for ex- 
ploration and offer the beginnings of vocational 
education. 

METHODS 

Material and method in the educative process are 
so inextricably involved that we may effect only 
measurable improvement in the former without efforts 
at progress in the latter. Method is also important 
on its own account. 

The two innovations of classroom procedure which 
have made their appearance in the grades of the junior 
high school more than others are (a) supervised study, 
and (b) methods of teaching through the project and 
problem. Both are used and usable in grades above 
and below those upon which we are here focussing 
attention. 

Supervised study seems to have more commonly 
found a place than have the project and problem, but 
it is introduced with extremely wide variation of 



154 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

detail. This is especially true in the matter of the 
amount of time given to it. The most common single 
practice found in a recent examination of the daily 
programs of a number of unselected junior high schools 
is the provision of a fifty- to sixty-minute period about 
equally divided in the academic subjects between recita- 
tion and directed study. 

Although the tendency to question the value of this 
mode of classroom procedure is on the decline, there is 
debate on the total amount of time and the proportion 
of the class period which should be devoted to it. 
Final answers to the questions involved must wait 
upon the findings of experience and experimentation. 
One of the chief aims of such directed study is train- 
ing the pupil in the technique of study peculiar to each 
subject, which has been almost ignored in our schools 
to date. Another is recognizing individual differences, 
which current methods of group instruction seem al- 
most to have left out of account. 

In casting about for relief from exclusive use of 
drill and what Judd terms the " examination " method 
of teaching, " the familiar one of calling a pupil to 
his feet and then asking him one question after another 
to find out whether he has learned his lesson," * 
educators also hit upon the project and the problem 2 
as the unit of instruction. While both have been 

1 Judd, Chas. H. : Introduction to the Scientific Study of Ed- 
ucation, p. 234. 

2 The preject and problem methods are not defined here. The 
reader will find an excellent description in Freeland, G. E. : Op. 
cit„ Chaps. II-III. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 155 

used successfully throughout the school system and 
as far down as the earliest grades of the elementary 
school, their suitability for the grades of the junior 
high school, which enroll children of the ages when 
socialization of motive and method peculiarly appeal, 
must be evident. These methods are appropriate in 
the classroom, laboratory, shop, excursion, and home 
and extra-curricular activities. They are suitable in 
a wide array of subjects. 

When we direct attention to the bearing of these 
types of method, supervised study and the project and 
problem, upon the performance of the peculiar func- 
tions, we see that the advocates of the former are 
justified in their expectation that it will help in recog- 
nizing individual differences. It gives the teacher the 
time to devote special attention to individual pupils. 
Since it aims to teach the pupil to study effectively, 
thus reducing the total of wasted efforts, it should 
work in the interests of economizing time. Through 
the fuller knowledge it gives teachers of weaknesses 
and strengths of pupils, it should assist materially in 
guiding the latter educationally, vocationally, and 
otherwise. It is itself better teaching and results in 
superior scholarship shown in a reduction of the pro- 
portion of failures and withdrawals and a somewhat 
superior distribution of marks. The closer contacts 
of teacher with pupil bring an improved disciplinary 
situation and better socializing opportunities. 

The methods of teaching through project and prob- 



156 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

lem may be administered through their assignment in 
the light of capacities and interests of pupils, so as 
to adapt instruction to individual needs. As contrasted 
with the " examination " method, they are better 
adapted to recognizing the child's nature at adolescence. 
Their use should constitute a reform in instruction and 
motivate the pupils to a larger measure of self -educa- 
tion, thereby encouraging a better use of time. The 
improved attitudes will be accompanied by relief of 
the disciplinary situation. The types of projects and 
problems selected and the manner in which they are 
worked out will enrich the socializing opportunities of 
the school. They will enhance the school's adaptability 
as an agency of exploration and of preliminary voca- 
tional education. 

Both types of method, supervised study and the pro- 
ject and problem, in performing the functions in the 
manner described will assist in holding pupils in school 
beyond the upper limit of the period of compulsory 
education. 

THE ADVISORY SYSTEM 

Several important considerations urge providing in 
the reorganized school some sort of advisory system. 
Experience has demonstrated that instituting depart- 
mental instruction without simultaneously including 
some feature which makes the pupil answerable to a 
member of the staff and the latter in a sense respon- 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 157 

sible for the pupil results often in disciplinary and 
social disorganization of the student body. Attention 
has already been directed to the need of guiding the 
pupils in selecting from the variable portions of the 
program of studies. As this is a time during which 
the bulk of elimination takes place from the school 
and when the children's interests are tending rapidly 
to comprehend adult concerns — vocational, avoca- 
tional, and social — , the advisory obligation may not 
safely be avoided. 

Many junior high schools have made a start in pro- 
viding the advisory machinery by instituting plans 
which are designated as " sponsor-teacher," " teacher- 
adviser," " room-teacher," " home-room-teacher," 
" roll-room-teacher," or " class-adviser " systems. In 
these systems, the responsibility of the adviser ranges 
from mere disciplinary control to rather full function- 
ing in a wide range of disciplinary, social, curricular, 
vocational and avocational counsel. The former is by 
far the more common practice. There should be vigor- 
ous and persistent effort to advance toward the latter. 
There should be progress as well, more nearly gradual 
than saltatory, from the rather complete control from 
without usual in the grades of the elementary school 
to an administration of discipline which places re- 
sponsibility with the student. 

Two types of assignment of pupils to sponsor teach- 
ers may be described. The more usual one is that in 
which a teacher has charge of a recitation section to 



158 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

which he gives instruction m one or more lines of 
work. The pupils of this section are in his room, 
their " home-room," at the beginning and close of each 
session and during the periods in which he is giving 
them instruction in his subjects. The other type is that 
which " assigns pupils from all grades to each group," 
allowing the group to " remain constant except for 
promotions to and, from school." 

Two of the advantages which Hieronimus, 1 who has 
used the latter plan in the Garfield Junior High School 
of Richmond, Indiana, believes it has over the former, 
are that it " makes for continuity and permanency " 
and "enables each adviser to get in touch with his 
pupils more quickly," since only a few new ones are 
received into each group each term. The objection to 
the former plan here implicit may be partly offset by 
avoiding as far as possible complete reorganization of 
the recitation groups at the opening of each term or 
each year, thereby making for better continuity of the 
groups. This may not be accomplished, however, for 
all during a three-year period because of the gradually 
increasing proportion of variables in the program sug- 
gested and because of promotion by subject. 

In addition to performing this function of being 
teacher-adviser for a special group each member of the 
teaching staff must be an avenue of guidance through 
the instruction given in his subjects. This is neces- 

1 Hieronimus, N. C. : " The Teacher-Adviser in the Junior 
High School," Educational Administration and Supervision, III, 
91-94, Feb., 1917. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 159 

sary for making the program of studies the agency 
of exploration, education and vocational, which we 
are becoming convinced it should be. 

Curricular exploration may be said to have two 
main aspects, that in which the pupil is allowed to come 
in contact directly and vicariously with a wide variety 
of activities and that in which those who are directing 
the exploration^ are testing out his interests and ca- 
pacities as he proceeds. Both are going forward at 
the same time and may be accomplished not only in 
such subjects as vocational civics and the practical and 
fine arts, but in the academic subjects as well. 

It is obvious that the selection of one's adult oc- 
cupation, for example, on the basis supplied by a knowl- 
edge of the opportunities in and the requirements and 
kinds of activities of a large number of vocations, 
that may be given in a life-career course and in courses 
in the practical arts would be more discerningly made 
than has been the too frequent practice. This would 
be especially true if the conditions of work in the 
courses in the practical arts resemble those of industry 
with respect to materials, methods, and speed. Partici- 
pation in the actual industrial processes would also 
constitute the crucible test of interest in a vocation, as 
interest often melts away in actual contact. 

It is possible, on the other hand, during these curricu- 
lar contacts to obtain measures of the pupil's success 
and to use these measures in advising him as to suit- 
able lines of vocational or other specialization. This 



160 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

may be accomplished not only in the practical and fine 
arts, but in the academic subjects as well. In fact, 
the measure of success in the academic subjects has 
been found to supply a tolerably, even if not com- 
pletely, dependable index to success in subsequent 
academic work and in occupational life of adulthood. 
As the best prophecy of success in an occupation is to 
be found in successful participation in it, the provision 
of conditions of work in the courses in practical and 
allied arts resembling those of industry is here again 
recommended. The instructors in these subjects are 
also under obligation to develop and apply objective 
tests of success in such participations as are provided, 
tests that will indicate both to the teacher and to the 
pupil the progress the latter is making toward adult 
standards. 1 It may be remarked in passing that such 
tests, since they would measure improvement during a 
period of training and not initial ability only as do 
many of our tests, would afford a comparatively re- 
liable basis for advice in guidance. 

The tests by teachers of the abilities of the pupils 
should be supplemented by tests of physique, estimates 
of personal make-up as shown in contacts with other 
pupils and with teachers, tests of intelligence such as 
the Stanford Revision of the Binet Tejsts or the Otis 
Group Intelligence Tests and information as to home 
and other environmental conditions. All such data 

1 Examples of tests that might be adapted to such a use are 
the National Business Ability Tests described in Cody, Sherwin : 
Commercial Tests and How to Use Them, 1919. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 161 

should be assembled in some form and place convenient 
for use in the work of guidance. 

The foregoing description makes the role of the 
teacher in an advisory system an important one. This 
must be true for any satisfactory plan, since the teach- 
ers' knowledge of the pupil should be the most in- 
formative we have. At the same time, it is not to 
be expected that an effective system of guidance may 
be solely a teacher plan. There must also be a co- 
ordination and direction of activity along these lines. 
Besides, there will be some kinds of information con- 
cerning pupils, instanced by the tests of general in- 
telligence, which should be gathered by the coordinat- 
ing authority. In small high schools enrolling up to 
two or three hundred pupils, the principal may be 
expected to serve as leader and coordinator and his 
office should be the place of assembly of the materials. 
In larger high schools it will be necessary to secure 
the services for part or full time of some person 
especially equipped for directing the work. 

It is not to be inferred from what has been said 
that there may be anything like compulsion in a plan 
of educational and vocational guidance. Democracy 
in education insists upon monition as against con- 
straint in these important matters. It is incumbent 
upon the school, however, to supply all needed infor- 
mation to the pupil and to his parents, both concerning 
himself and the occupations, so that he and they may 
have a basis for intelligent choice. 



162 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The relation of providing an adequate system of 
pupil control and advice more or less of the sort just 
described to achieving the distinctive functions of the 
junior high school is so evident as scarcely to require 
exposition. The pupil's retention will be encouraged 
by the closer contact and interest of the teacher, as 
well as by the better performance for him of the other 
functions. His time will be economized by selecting 
work suited to his needs. Through the exploration 
which this feature implies his individual differences 
may be better recognized and his education, vocational, 
avocational, or other, more wisely planned. The coun- 
sel to be given him will be along lines in which his 
interests at this stage of life are running. His con- 
viction of the value of the variables he selects in the 
light of the advice he receives will tend to motivate his 
work in those subjects, securing more earnest efforts 
on his part and providing in some measure at least 
the conditions of better teaching. The disciplinary 
situation and socializing opportunities will also be im- 
proved for him. 

Attention needs hardly to be directed to the insuf- 
ficiency of the usual advisory system — if it may be 
dignified by that name — which provides a home-room 
teacher who is merely in disciplinary control of the 
group, and in which the principal gives hasty and un- 
systematic advice, if any. The reasons for this con- 
dition are to be sought perhaps both in the lack of 
appreciation of the need for the wider functioning and 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 163 

in the present inadaptability of the staff to the task. 
Large strides must be made in preparation of teacher 
and principal before adequate advisory systems may 
be generally provided. 

THE STAFF 

In spite of all the importance that may be ascribed 
to other features of the junior high school, the supreme 
place of properly qualified teachers and principals in 
effecting thoroughgoing reorganization cannot be gain- 
said. It is perhaps generally conceded that if a staff 
meeting all desirable requirements may be secured, the 
remaining features necessary for reorganization will 
almost automatically follow. 

The properly qualified teacher for the junior high 
school may be briefly described in terms of his rela- 
tion to the features and functions of this new insti- 
tution. The features with which the teacher may be 
expected to have most intimate relationship are the 
program of studies (with departmentalization), meth- 
ods, the advisory system, and the sociaf organization. 
Since it is the teacher who presents the materials of 
the program, he should have sufficient ability in the 
fields he is teaching to assemble and organize them. 
This is the more imperative with the present dearth of 
textbooks suitable for use in classes in the junior high 
school; in far from all lines have texts appeared and 
many of those offered are ill-adapted to its needs. The 
knowledge necessary is also often not of the sort that 



i6 4 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

has been traditionally presented to those preparing for 
teaching positions. Such a teacher must know and 
appreciate the values of subjects of study other than 
his own. He must be equipped with a new type of 
method, which, instead of being limited to hearing 
pupils recite the lessons they have studied in text- 
books, will stress the teaching of how to study effec- 
tively in the subjects for which the teacher is respon- 
sible and which will resort to the project and problem 
as means of making the child more of an agent in his 
own education. He should be able to detect important 
individual differences and adapt instruction to them. 
In discussing the advisory system much was made of 
the teacher's role in guidance, both as a sponsor teacher 
and as a teacher of subjects to be used in testing out 
the pupil's capacities and interests, a role for which 
few teachers are at present equipped. The teacher, 
too, must be an important factor in the development 
and direction of extra-curricular social activities. He 
should be socially and pedagogically so constituted as 
to appreciate them as an agency of education rather 
than to look upon them as an annoyance to be tol- 
erated or an intrusion upon the purely academic in- 
terests. For adequate functioning in all the features 
named he should measure up to what Gosling refers to 
as the " moral requirements " of the junior high-school 
teacher, viz., understanding of, and sympathy with 
adolescent boys and girls; a clean, generous, and in- 
spiring personality; qualities of real leadership; a 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 16; 

broad social vision and a keen sense of social obliga- 
tions." x 

-** For the purposes of normalization of the social sit- 
uation in the junior high school it is desirable more 
nearly to equalize the number of men and women 
teachers in these grades. 

The possibility of achieving all peculiar functions 
of the junior high school with teachers of the sort 
here briefly characterized is apparent. The disturbing 
element in the situation is their rarity and the dif- 
ficulties in the way of rapidly producing them. Years 
must pass before normal schools and universities will 
turn out teachers who will understand the functions of 
the junior high school and be able to mold the means 
for their achievement. The training of present grad- 
uates of neither of these types of institution has been 
such as will fit them for this important work. 
Pedagogy with meager scholarship in subjects and ex- 
tended training in subjects with meager training in 
pedagogy are both incommensurate to the task, es- 
pecially when neither pedagogy nor scholarship have 
been planned with preparation for teaching in this in- 
stitution in mind. Moreover, because it seems prob- 
able that for many years the salaries offered for teach- 
ing in junior high schools will lie somewhere between 
•those for teaching in the elementary school and the 
high school, the more capable graduates of colleges 

1 Gosling, T. W. : " The Selection and Training of Teachers 
for Junior High Schools." Eighteenth Yearbook of the National 
Society for the Study of Education, 1919, Part I, p. 173. 



166 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

and universities will be reluctant to accept positions 
in the intermediate institution. We are thus led to 
anticipate that in the immediate future teachers for 
junior high schools, whether experienced or inexper- 
ienced, will be drawn largely from those who have 
been prepared for elementary-school teaching in our 
normal schools. 1 This urges upon those responsible 
for appointments the selection of normal-school grad- 
uates who, approximating as nearly as may be the 
standards set down above, are ambitious and pos- 
sessed of ability to grow. Even more necessary is their 
training during service in an understanding of the 
purposes of this new institution and the means through 
which those purposes are to be accomplished. 

In the absence of teachers qualified to do their full 
share in the performance of the functions of the junior 
high school, much depends upon the selection of a prin- 
cipal who is alert to all that is to be demanded of this 
new institution, who is equipped in all the respects 
in which the teachers appointed are lacking, and who 
is capable of leading and directing their training dur- 
ing service. A principal of these parts working with 
a compromise staff of teachers will be able to bring a 
junior high school to an estimable level of functioning. 

1 Small committees with six-year secondary schools will tend 
to be excepted from this limitation, because in them college- 
trained teachers will give instruction in their subjects from the 
seventh grade through the twelfth. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 167 

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 

The necessity of breaking with the traditions that 
make the school an institution with purely intellectual 
purposes through extension and organization of its 
social activities has often been stressed in recent edu- 
cational literature. It is implicit in much that has been 
said in foregoing pages and will hardly require vin- 
dication at this point. These activities already loom 
large in the four-year high school and in a number of 
junior high schools. They run through a wide variety 
of interests and forms, among them athletic teams and 
associations; debating, oratorical, declamatory, literary 
and dram- iic clubs and societies; department clubs in 
science, art, languages, and history; musical organiza- 
tions such as glee clubs, choral clubs, bands, and or- 
chestras'; religious and social-service clubs; staff of the 
school journal. Mention should also be made of the 
importance of developing the school's informal social 
life. 

But evils appear in these extra-curricular activities, 
if they are not properly organized and controlled. 
There is danger that some students will over-indulge 
in them while others will neglect them too much or 
entirely. They will sometimes be carried to such an 
extreme that they will interfere with the legitimate de- 
mands of the academic interests. Not infrequently 
they will take such directions as to be socially detri- 
mental, as when they are accompanied by excessive ex- 



168 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

penditures of money or tend to develop cliques. A 
satisfactory plan of control will include systematiza- 
tion to avoid conflicting interests and direction by the 
staff sufficient to insure the realization of the educa- 
tional values inherent. It should aim also at more 
nearly general participation, as has recently become 
the ideal in athletics. 

Attention has already been directed to the prominent 
place of the teacher in any satisfactory plan and to 
the kind of teacher requisite to the task. The teach- 
ers should act more as leaders than as censors. For 
many lines of extra-curricular activity, as may be seen 
by examination of any fairly complete list, direction 
or leadership of a more or less expert character is 
imperative. When teachers are assigned to such work, 
if it is to exact any extended amount of time and 
effort, concessions should be made on the teaching, 
schedule, so that it will be recognized as a part of the 
regular work and will not suffer neglect because it is 
regarded as a burden in excess of a full teaching load. 
In large junior high schools it will be found necessary 
to relieve the principal of direction of the system and 
to engage the services of some suitable person for part 
or full time to foster the work. 

The appropriateness of the social activities to the 
interests of children of the ages under consideration 
can not be doubted. Effectively administered they 
will enrich the socializing opportunities of the school 
and encourage a self-direction of pupils that will con- 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION i6gf 

stitute progress in the disciplinary situation. The 
variety of activities will permit the child to explore 
for his special propensities or, having found them, to 
gratify them. We may anticipate that participation 
will often turn out to be in the nature of vocational 
preparation. The presence of the social motive will 
frequently bring a more intense application resulting in 
a higher quality of performance. The enhanced in- 
terest in school life brought by these activities will 
encourage many to make a longer stay in school. 

HOUSING AND EQUIPMENT 

Experience seems to prescribe that, wherever pos- 
sible, the junior high school be housed in buildings of 
its own and not be co-occupant with a senior high 
school or an elementary school, more especially the 
latter. This is not always feasible, particularly in the 
smaller communities. Separation assists in freeing the 
new institution from the restricting traditions of these 
other schools and thus gives latitude for a better recog- 
nition of the child's nature during the years of on- 
coming and early adolescence. It permits a shift to 
a disciplinary regime more suitable for children of 
these years and, through the greater approach to homo- 
geneity of the group included, better opportunity for 
other efforts at socialization. 

It seems advisable to warn against a questionable 
practice that has arisen in connection with establishing 
junior high schools as co-occupants of buildings with 



170 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

elementary schools — that of providing them in too 
large a proportion of schools. Any such tendency must 
keep the number of pupils in any one organization so 
small as to militate against providing for the recog- 
nition of individual differences through grouping ac- 
cording to ability, for exploration for guidance, and 
for vocational education. Performing these functions 
is facilitated by concentrating rather large numbers 
of children. On the other hand, the territory drawn 
upon should not be so large and the building used so 
unfortunately located as concerns remoteness from 
many of the homes from which pupils are to come 
that distances will encourage early elimination at 
the termination of the period of compulsory educa- 
tion. 

The kind of plant, i.e., grounds, buildings, and equip- 
ment, adapted to the needs of genuine reorganization 
is not often found in use. There must, of course, be 
classrooms, but they should be fitted with seats, desks 
and other equipment suitable for use in directed study. 
There must be laboratories equipped for instruction 
in courses in general science. There should be shop 
facilities sufficient to provide the contacts in the in- 
dustrial arts which a survey of the needs of the pupils 
and of the community will recommend. Their extent 
will depend also upon the enrollment of the school. 
Owing to the varying influence of these factors, no 
general rule may be laid down as to what separate 
or combined shops are to be included in the plans. 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 171 

However, provisions should touch as wide a range of 
the industrial activities listed in the materials dealing 
with the program of studies in a preceding chapter as 
is feasible. In no case should the facilities limit the 
industrial contacts to benchwork in wood only, as 
seems to be the usual practice. 

The facilities to be provided for commercial work, 
agriculture, music and the graphic and related arts 
must be determined by analogous principles. In junior 
high schools in commercial centers special rooms and 
equipment will be required for bookkeeping and type- 
writing. All junior high schools should make some 
space-provision for instruction in agriculture. In larger 
communities this may sometimes be limited to school 
and home gardens and facilities for a course in general 
agriculture. In farming communities it may be ex- 
tended to special laboratories and a school plot or farm 
adapted to the presentation of a more extended 
offering. The facilities for instruction in the home 
arts, because of the universality of the need for the 
work, should be as extensive as practicable and may 
well always include some space and equipment for 
sewing, fitting, millinery, design, cooking, and laun- 
dering. If at all possible, opportunities for observa- 
tion and practice in a model cottage or apartment 
should be provided. The equipment in all shops and 
laboratories should be so chosen as to reflect the needs 
of the world outside the school. Ample facilities 
should be provided for physical education and recrea- 



172 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

tion, including playgrounds, gymnasia, shower rooms, 
and swimming pools. No junior high-school plant 
should be regarded as complete without provision of 
space, books, periodicals, and other equipment for a 
library commensurate to the needs of children of the 
ages to be included, or without an auditorium or as- 
sembly room equipped with stage and dressing rooms. 
In the larger junior high schools the development of 
social activities gives rise to a demand for one or 
more smaller additional assembly rooms. These may 
also be used for some types of instruction in which 
large groups may be advantageously managed. Among 
other necessities will be lunch rooms, rest rooms, offices, 
corridors, locker-rooms, toilets, bicycle courts, not to 
mention the space and equipment for heating, ven- 
tilation, etc. 

Even this superficial catalogue of the large items in 
the junior high-school plans shows that without them 
the provision of some of the features of reorganization 
discussed in this and the preceding chapters is under 
serious handicap. Among these features are the pro- 
gram of studies, improved methods, the advisory sys- 
tem, and the social organization. There is no peculiar 
function the achievement of which would not be accel- 
erated directly or indirectly by a plant conforming to 
that just described, although some would be aided 
more than others. The strictures placed upon such 
achievement by the type of plant not uncommonly pro- 
vided may without difficulty be imagined when it 1§ 



OTHER FEATURES OF REORGANIZATION 173 

recalled that junior high schools are often housed in 
unremodeled buildings formerly accomodating high or 
elementary schools, buildings whose erection antedates 
modern conceptions of secondary education. 



VI 

THE STANDARD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

There has been some tendency in the educational 
world in recent years to accept the typical as the 
" standard/' Although such a practice will sometimes 
have much to commend it, there are occasions on which 
it would be indefensible. A notable instance of its 
ineptitude would be the acceptance of the typical junior 
high school as the standard of reorganization. 

Described in terms of the features of reorganization, 
this typical junior high school distributes work to 
teachers departmentally or semi-departmentally and 
promotes by subject. As to these two features it con- 
forms fairly well to desirable practices. On the other 
hand, the typical junior high school wavers between 
the two-year and the three-year organization; it still 
adheres to the requirement for admission to the seventh 
grade of " satisfactory completion of all the sixth- 
grade work"; its program of studies deviates but 
slightly from the better offering in the same grades 
of the conventional organization : it has given no im- 
portant place to directed study and restricts itself al- 
most exclusively to the " examination " method of 
recitation; its advisory system is confined to the dis- 

174 



THE STANDARD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 175 

charge of the disciplinary responsibilities of the home- 
room teacher; its staff is made up in very large part 
of upper-grade teachers not especially selected for 
their promise in a new field of work requiring adapt- 
ability and an active capacity for growth ; its social or- 
ganization is restricted to a few unsystematically ad- 
ministered and educationally ineffective extra-curricular 
activities; and, when it is not housed with the senior 
high school, it is co-occupant with an elementary school 
of an unremodeled and poorly equipped building. This 
typical organization may perform functions in few 
significant respects differing from those which are being 
performed by the conventional organization. We 
should, therefore, be regarding standardization lightly 
indeed were we to designate such an institution as 
this — hardly more than a departmental organization 
of upper-grade work — as the standard junior high 
school. 

From one point of view we are not yet in a position 
to define the standard junior high school : we are still 
too remote from finalities in conceptions of both func- 
tions and features to speak with much assurance of 
what should be. Before we may attain these concep- 
tions there must be a vast deal of investigation. This 
investigation should not be restricted to a discovery of 
current practices or of opinions as to what these prac- 
tices should be. This is the type of investigation con- 
cerning this institution to which we have been too much 
confining ourselves. We must have painstaking ex- 



176 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

perimentation and careful statistical evaluation. For 
genuine guidance in standardization we must now 
settle down to the laborious task of working out, de- 
tail by detail, the special purposes of the junior high 
school and the means by which these purposes are to 
be accomplished. For instance, our knowledge of the 
nature of the child during his years of attendance in 
these grades is still meager and must be much ex- 
tended before we may, with any degree of ultima te- 
ness, define what is meant by recognizing it in the 
school regime. Likewise, we have much to learn con- 
cerning individual differences and what is involved 
in their recognition. We are relatively uninformed 
on the remaining functions to which we have given 
attention in preceding chapters, and on the need of 
their performance. It is conceivable that there are 
valid functions of which we are as yet unaware. The 
same may be said of the dearth of exact information 
on each feature of reorganization, e.g., the appropriate 
grades to be included, the curricular materials and 
their mode of administration, the methods, the ad- 
visory system, the staff, etc. As is the case with all 
our educational institutions, most of what we need to 
know still remains undisclosed and it is the respon- 
sibility of all who are in any way connected with the 
junior high school to assist experientially and ex- 
perimentally in extending our information concerning 
its distinctive aims and the special agencies for their 
attainment 



THE STANDARD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOU 177 

But the lack of full knowledge to be gained by the 
methods of science has not prevented standardization 
of the older educational institutions. In the light of 
such information as has been available, standardiza- 
tion has proceeded and no small portion of our educa- 
tional progress is to be ascribed to it. Similarly, it is 
necessary to utilize such knowledge as we have in at- 
tempting to formulate a tentative conception of the 
standard junior high school, this conception to be 
modified as exact information is added for our guid- 
ance. In the present state of information this con- 
ception far transcends the typical junior high school 
just characterized. Such a tentative standard is sug- 
gested by a cursory examination of Figure 7, to which 
reference has been made at earlier points in this 
volume. The functions in this figure are those which 
may be accepted, in the present state of our knowledge 
of the junior high school, as a working list of its 
distinctive purposes. Our tentative standard will also 
require that the features of reorganization and their 
mode of administration be such as to achieve these 
peculiar functions. Although there may be disagree- 
ment as to the degree of importance assigned to some 
of the features listed in Figure 7 in assisting in per- 
forming the peculiar functions, the great importance 
of most of them or of some variation of them is ap- 
parent and is suggested by the extremely large pro- 
portion of shaded area in the diagram. 

As has been seen in a foregoing section of thi§ 



178 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

volume, the functioning of the junior high school seems 
to be best facilitated by the inclusion of the three 
grades beginning with the seventh and by a plan of 
admission somewhat at variance with insistence upon 
satisfactory completion of all the work of the pre- 
ceding grade. The program of studies should be of 
the constants-with- variables and not of the single- 
curriculum or the multiple-curriculum type. It should 
in its constants provide the training necessary for all 
in achieving the physical, social-civic, and avocational 
aims, and in its variables give latitude for the in- 
dividual choice which is possible and advisable in 
achieving the vocational and, in some part, the avoca- 
tional aims. Both constants and variables should be 
administered as far as possible to recognize individual 
differences in ability. Some measure of departmental- 
ization is desirable, although cpmplete departmentaliza- 
tion, if provided at any point, should perhaps be de- 
ferred to the ninth grade or later. Promotion should 
be by subject. The work of the classroom should 
not be restricted to the "examination" method, but 
should give large recognition to study under super- 
vision and to the project and problem. There should 
be an advisory system which will, of course, be con- 
cerned with the school behavior of the child. It must 
in addition comprehend his other interests, educational, 
vocational, social, and recreational. The staff in this 
standard junior high school should have been selected 
in the light of their vital relationship to other features 



THE STANDARD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 179 

of reorganization and with a view to securing those 
who are capable and desirous of growth and who 
may be trained to an appreciation of the purposes of 
this institution. It is too much to expect many of them, 
when first appointed, to apprehend those purposes. 
Finally, the housing and its equipment should be such 
as to facilitate rather than obstruct the performance of 
the peculiar functions, allowing for a wide range of 
educational activity. The relationship of each of these 
features to the possibility of full accomplishment of 
the working list of distinctive purposes is so direct and 
intimate that if any one be ignored, the realization of 
the purppses is endangered to such an extent that it 
may be doubted whether this tentatively standard 
junior high school may be attained. 







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